


We Hold You In Our Hearts

by DangerTaylor



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Clyde is 19, Depression, F/F, F/M, Forbidden Love, Friends to Lovers, Gentle Clyde, HEA, Hidden Relationship, Kissing, Love Letters, M/M, Mention of 9/11 Attacks, Mention of ReyLogan Baby at ending, Mention of abuse, Military/Army, PTSD, Post 9/11 Summer Camp AU, Pregnancy, Rey is 17, Rey's back story of abandonment, Threat of cutting off arm to prove love, Underage Summer Romance, Vaginal Fingering, handjob, keeping secrets, mention of divorce, safe sex, war injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:41:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 12
Words: 60,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21814591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DangerTaylor/pseuds/DangerTaylor
Summary: Camp Mishawaka, the summer camp where Rey felt more at home than the smelly apartment over Plutt's auto garage. This is her ninth summer attending, but this year is different, this year she is a Counselor In Training. With more responsibility and under the watchful eye of Ms. Holdo, the camp leader, Rey hopes to make a good impression and Clyde Logan was the last thing she saw coming.After the attacks on the Twin Towers, West Virginia native, Clyde Logan felt a call to serve his country. His mama and baby sister, Mels, begged him to reconsider, but by the summer of 2002, he was hitting the road to drive himself down to Florida and see the ocean before signing his life over to Uncle Sam. With boot camp looming, he did not expect his truck to break down near the small town of Canon, Georiga, forcing him to work at a summer camp to afford the repairs. With his future on the horizon, Clyde didn't see Rey Niima coming to turn his world upside down.
Relationships: Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso, Clyde Logan/Rey (Star Wars), Finn/Rose Tico, Poe Dameron & Rey
Comments: 118
Kudos: 116





	1. To A Place, I Belong

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MyJediLife](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyJediLife/gifts).



> For MyJediLife who is kind of the Den Mother to a lot of us. She is so supportive and I'm not sure what the Pink Ladies would do without her. 
> 
> I have come to know (and fear) her very unhealthy love for Clyde Logan (be careful, she will cut you), and I couldn't think of a more perfect story to drop our cauliflower loving hillbilly into. 
> 
> This one is for you H. 
> 
> Thank you to peaceblessingspeyton for being my Beta for this story, since I couldn't well ask the giftee to beta her own story.

**To A Place, I Belong**

It was a balmy, June morning in Canon, Georgia, and an old yellow school bus rumbled down a dusty road in desperate need of resurfacing. Excited cries and laughter poured out of the open windows as the bus rushed under ancient oaks and crooked pine trees that lined the lane. 

Rey Niima sat at the rear of the bus, with her face bathed in sunlight and breathing in the fresh scent of country air. This wasn’t her first trip down this road, but this year was different than all the rest. She was finally seventeen, and that meant she was going to be a counselor in training. 

When she heard the other kids on the bus started to cheer, Rey sat up higher in her seat just in time to see the Camp Mishawaka sign come into view. For the past nine years, this summer camp was her escape from the congestion of the city and also the overbearing and borderline creepy attention of her foster father, Mr. Plutt. 

Rey entered the foster system shortly after her fifth birthday, and all of her caseworkers said she was lucky to stay in the same home for as long as she has. Still, she would have preferred shifting around a little for the prospect of finding a placement with other kids...or with a mother. So while the summer camp program was meant to give the foster parent a respite from the day to day care of a child, Rey quickly found that she looked forward to it more than Plutt and rushed through the end of the school years with Camp Mishawaka in sight. 

The camp didn’t take children younger than eight, and Rey had to admit that it was scary the first year, but being around other kids, having an older female mentor, and always having new activities to learn made the camp one of Rey’s favorite places to be. She learned how to swim at the camp, learned how to light a fire, and pick wild berries. Rey also found her love of horses at Camp Mishawaka, the earthy smell of hay, and the pitted grass of the training ring was a far cry from the fumes of the apartment over Plutt’s auto garage in the city. 

Two years ago, Rey got to move into the senior cabin, and now she would be the assistant counselor, and she couldn’t wait to see who was in her cabin this summer. She kept in touch with some friends from prior years through letters and instant messaging, so Rey knew for sure that Rose and Kay would be there. They already speculated if any of the boys would be returning and who they were planning to ask to the end of summer dance. 

Further up the drive, Rey saw the camp’s lodge come into view and the parking lot full of parents unloading footlockers and suitcases. Plutt never brought her up to the camp, only going as far as dropping her off at the local YMCA where the bus picked up a hand full of other kids from around Atlanta. 

Rey remembered her first summer she packed her meager belongings into a tattered suitcase that Plutt said was once his late mother’s. It was only last year that Rey was able to get a job bagging groceries at Publix and bought herself a bright purple footlocker that she decorated with hand-painted daisies and stickers she got out of the vending machine at the skating rink. 

She was even able to buy that herbal shampoo that all of the other girls use, a new swimsuit, and proper boots to continue to help out at the stables. So as the bus came to a stop, Rey slid her thrift store found Discman into the crossbody bag that sat in the seat next to her and prepared to embark on another fantastic summer at Camp Mishawaka. 

Following the camper off the bus, she moved to the back to help unload the trucks, she waved at Chewie who did the maintenance around the camp and had been there as long as she had. 

“Hey, sunshine!” The six-foot-seven man said with a warm smile. “Good to see you made it up here again this year.”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world, Chewie. You know that.” She answered back, as he helped her lift her footlocker into the stack of others that would be hauled on the back of his truck to Cabin 8 later that morning. 

Next, she made her way into the lodge, bypassing mothers with tears in their eyes as they kissed their sons and daughters goodbye. Some campers stayed for two weeks, but Rey always got to come for the entire month, and she never cried at night from missing home, or packed up her belongings early with the hopes that something better than cabins with no A/C and hair so damaged by chlorine that it crunched, was waiting for her. 

Ms. Holdo, who had light purple hair this year, was welcoming campers in the front lobby. Rey started calling her by her first name, Amilyn, five summers ago when Rey started her period, and the camp leader was able to calm the young girl down and explain about becoming a woman. Plutt’s idea of a birds and bees talk was something along the lines of, ‘If you get yourself knocked up, don’t expect to be staying around here.’

“Rey! So glad to have you back with us!” Amilyn smiled and held out her arms to envelop the girl in a hug. “You’ve shot up since last summer!” She held Rey back to take a long look at her. 

“I’m not that tall,” Rey said with a blush tinting her cheeks. She wasn’t used to such affection, and at times it made her uncomfortable, but Amilyn was always so warm, and Rey loved that about her. 

Cupping Rey’s cheek, Amilyn’s smile softened. “What I mean is that you have matured into a beautiful young lady, and it has been such a joy to watch you grow.”

Rey was not going to cry...no she was not. Not like the girl in the lodge who wouldn’t let go of her father’s leg, or the boy with coke bottle glasses who sat quietly in the corner with tear tracks down his face. Rey was not going to cry. 

So she returned the woman’s smile and shifted the bag on her shoulder, only sighing with relief when Amilyn spoke again. 

“Are you ready to be a counselor in training?”

Rey’s smile brightened. “I have been looking forward to this ever since I left last summer.”

Amilyn laughed. “Good! I have put you back in the senior cabin. Maybe if you come back to us next year as a counselor, you will be assigned to the younger campers, but I think that Jyn will be a good leader to show you the ropes.”

Jyn Erso was Rey’s counselor two years ago, and the woman in her mid-twenties was strong but compassionate, strict, but fair—everything that Rey aspired to be as a leader. “Thank you, Amilyn. I love Jyn. I believe she will be an excellent teacher!”

The camp leader smiled and then leaned in closer, “Why don’t you go scope out a bunk before the other girls get up there. Perks of being a CIT.” Amilyn winked at Rey’s beaming face and then chucked with the girl nodded and skipped off towards the back of the lodge and to the exit that would lead down to the rest of the camp. 

Rey flitted pass the two ping pong tables and then down a set of stairs. The campground opened up from there. A line of one-story cement block cabins where the younger campers stay was to the right and a two-story wooden structure that had eight counselor rooms on the bottom, and the infirmary on the second level was to the left. Between them sat a crystal blue pool with swimming lanes and two diving boards. 

It was only three years ago that Rey was able to jump off the high dive. Taking risks was never her cup of tea. She knew with any slip up, she could cycle back into the system, and she could no longer keep track of the times Plutt threatened to send her to juvie.

As she trotted past the pool, where she hoped to get in as many laps as possible, Rey watched the counselors who not assigned to cabins move in and out of their rooms. She mused that the privacy would be nice, but there was something about living with the campers that made this experience worthwhile for Rey. 

Straight ahead were Cabins 8 and 9, the senior girls and boys cabins, respectively. They were nothing fancy, wooden portables up on cinder blocks with screens instead of windows. There was no air conditioning at Camp Mishawaka, just the gentle Georgia breeze to keep them cool at night. That and the clip-on fan that she found was essential after her first summer. 

Walking up the wooden steps, Rey pulled on the screen door, and her soul warmed at the familiar squeak of the hinges. The cabin smells slightly of musty mattresses and the steel frames of the double-decker bunks. The plywood floor wasn’t yet covered in a thin layer of sand, so her steps didn’t make the usually scraping sound as she ventured over to where Jyn’s things were already set up. 

Knowing that she would want Rose to bunk with her, Rey checked out the prime spots. Far corner, close to the door, or on the other side of a half wall that ran down half of the cabin, creating space to place extra bunks. 

Rey smiled and went to the far side of the half-wall, sitting down and bouncing a few times on the lower bunk mattress. “This will do nicely,” she mused while checking out the amount of room they would have for their footlockers. 

Just then, she heard heavy footsteps on the stairs and smiled when she saw Chewie through the screen. “Amilyn said you were up here claiming a bunk, so I figured I would bring your stuff up.”

“Thank you, Chewie. What would I do without you?” Rey said as she opened her purple truck and started pulling out the sheets that she knew by now to pack at the top of her things. 

Chewie chucked. “Between that time the raccoon got in Cabin 4, and the amount of times the plumbing backs up, I think this place would go to hell in a handbasket.”

“It just wouldn’t be Mishawaka without you,” she beamed up at him. 

The overgrown puppy dog of a man blushed. “You’re not so bad yourself, kid. You’ll be an amazing counselor next year—if you plan to come back, that is…”

“Of course, I’m coming back! This place feels more like home than _home_ sometimes.”

They exchanged crooked smiles, and then Chewie’s eyebrows shot up. “I almost forgot!” He lumbered down the stairs to his work truck and pulled something off the bench seat before tossing it in Rey’s direction. He watched her unfold the garnet-colored shirt just as a large smile unfolded on her face. “Congratulations, kid.”

Rey looked at the shirt that she waited nine years for—when she wore it to assembly tomorrow morning, everyone would know that she was a counselor in training. Everyone would know that she mattered. 

She looked up when she heard the truck door slam shut. “I got to drop off these other trunks, but I’ll see you at chow later!” Chewie called as he coasted down the grassy hill towards the younger boy’s cabins. 

Taking in a deep breath of the fresh air and hugging her new shirt to her chest, Rey knew that this summer would be different—she could feel it in her bones. 

Over the next few hours, campers started to file into the cabin. By now, Rey had her extension cord and power strip plugged in and hung over the top rail of the bunk. Her clip-on fan was already secured to the metal support of bed and pushing cooler air towards her as she made her bed and unpacked shoes and toiletries. She even stung up a few bungee cords so that she and Rose could hang up their wet towels and bathing suits. 

The cabin door slammed behind her. “Rey!” 

“Rose!” She answered, running over to her friend and wrapping the small Asian girl in a tight embrace. 

They met three summers ago when they were both in junior Cabin 3. Rose was from Athens, Georgia and lived with both her parents and her older sister, Paige, who just went off to college in Charlotte. Her mother pulled extra shifts at the hospital to pay for Rose to attend camp each year, and this year was special because Rose would be there for the entire month. 

“Good to see you again, Rey.” Came a calm voice.

“You also, Mrs. Tico!” Rey said, finally releasing Rose and going up to her parents. 

The older woman chuckled. “How many times must I insist that you call me Thanya?”

Rey blushed. “At least a dozen more times, I am sure.”

Mr. Tico, or Hue, as he too insisted Rey call him, walked into the cabin toting his daughter’s electric blue footlocker. “I think Paige packed less when she moved out,” he said and strained under the weight of the trunk. After setting it down with a thud, he collapsed on top of it dramatically.

“You alright, Mr. Hue? Do I need to fetch the nurse?” Rey teased the older man who was turning gray at the temples. 

He rolled his eyes as the girls giggled. “He’s just upset that his doctor said he needed to lose a few pounds, and mom made him join a gym,” Rose whispered over to her friend.

Thanya shooed her husband off the footlocker. “Why don’t you drop Rose’s medication off at the infirmary while I help her unpack.”

Rose’s mother’s idea of helping was sitting on the lower bunk with Rey and catching up on the past year while Rose climbed up and down the metal rungs to make her bed and clip her fan to the railing. 

Hue came back right as Rose was sliding her shower caddy under the bed next to Rey’s, and he held out his hand for his wife. “Come dear. I’m sure our girls have much to talk about.”

Rey smiled up at Rose, who was hanging her head over the top bunk. At sixteen, Rose didn’t need a long farewell and didn’t cry when her parents left her for a month. But she still jumped down and hugged her parents. “I promise to write,” she said when her mother kissed her forehead.

“And not only when your store credit runs low,” Hue joked as he ruffled Rose’s hair. 

“Dad…” Rose whined, smoothing her jet black hair.

He rumbles out a laugh and then holds his hand out to Rey, “Take care of our girl, counselor in training.”

Rey takes his hand and shakes it a few times, “She’s safe with me.”

“I know,” Hue smiles and pulled Rey in for a quick hug. He knew about Rey’s life, they sent extra items in Rose’s care packages to share with Rey and helped Rose pick out small gifts to send on Rey’s birthday and Christmas. What he wasn’t aware of was how hard Rey cried two years ago when she opened the box and found her first real winter coat.

Thanya came up quickly and kissed both girls on the cheek and then grabbed her husband and waved over her shoulder as they exited the cabin. 

“I thought they would never leave,” Rose said as she fell back in Rey’s bunk.

Rey laid down next to her friend. She knew that Rose wasn’t ungrateful for her parents, especially understanding that Rey would never have the doting mother or the caring father, but Rey also knew that Plutt’s apathy at parenting allowed her a lot of freedom. 

So she rolled over to face her friend. “Did you scope out what boys are back?”

Rose’s face lit up. “Well, I saw Finn and Poe shooting hoops on the way in, and Cassian is back as a counselor for the senior boys.”

They both sighed, and Rey whispered, “Cassian is so dreamy.”

“He is, but he’s too old for us.”

Rey only gave a tight smile in return. Cassian Andor had been a counselor for the past few years, and by her count, Rey figured he was twenty or twenty-one by now. Rose was a year younger than Rey, and so a guy in his twenties must seem entirely out of her league, but last year, Rey lost her virginity to a nineteen-year-old that she worked with, so for her, the idea wasn’t so far fetched. 

Perhaps her harder life made Rey more mature because she knew in another year she would be aged out of the system and be all on her own, but she did not hold this against her friends who would have the safety nets of their families for the rest of their lives. 

Before the cabin could fill up, Rose threw her pillow on the bunk across from them. Kay lives in Florida and usually doesn’t get to the camp until around dinner time. In her last letter, Kay told Rose that she was only staying two weeks and then spending the rest of her summer with her grandmother, who lived just over the state line in Greenville.

Jyn clapped her hands and called the cabin to order, telling all the girls to make their way to the lodge for dinner. Rey and Rose linked arms and sang the newest _The Vines_ song out into the warm north Georgia air. 

Halfway through their dinner of delivery pizza, Kay slid onto the bench next to Rose and threw her arms around her friend’s shoulders. 

“Kay!” Rose cried out and returned the hug. 

“We saved you a bottom bunk,” Rey said while leaning forward to look around Rose. 

Kay’s real name was Kaydel, but most people ended up mispronouncing it or calling her Kendall, so when she joined their group last year, she went by Kay. She was also sixteen with blonde hair halfway down her back. Rey considered her a cute girl, still holding some baby fat in her face, but her womanly curves had filled out in the past year. Kay had no shortage of boys asking her to the dance last summer, and Rey doubted this year would be any different. 

The funny thing about that was, Kay was into girls. 

After a few lackluster performances from her kind-of-boyfriend Jason, who did night stocking at the grocery store, Rey wasn’t sure that men were for her either, so Kay had been the first girl Rey ever kissed. 

Rey remembered it was sweet, and Kay was soft and warm. They had a few intense make-out sessions in their bunk after lights out, and Kay used her fingers to make Rey orgasm in the showers one night. Still, Rey felt like something was missing, so the girls decided to just be friends. 

Kay’s mother, Carrie, who had been talking with Amilyn in the lodge’s front entry, walked over and kissed the top of her daughter’s head, said a quick hello to the other girls, and then reminded Kay that her grandmother would pick her up in two weeks. 

After dinner, all of the cabins rotated through the bathrooms. Rey slid on some cotton sleep shorts she bought on sale at Old Navy, and the three girls sat on her bunk, talking and giggling long into the night. 

Amilyn rang the bell that hung in front of the counselor cabins precisely at 6:30 the next morning. Campers started making their way down to the bathrooms before returning to their cabins to dress. Breakfast was at 7:30. Pancakes were always served on the first day. 

Rey was dressed in her garnet shirt and grabbed a yogurt cup and fruit as well. At home, she was used to having coffee, so she was thankful when Jyn set down a cup from the counselor’s lounge and winked at her. 

Thirty minutes later, Amilyn was calling everyone to take their dishes to the washing station and then report outside for assembly. 

Every morning Amilyn and some of the other senior counselors would tell the campers about upcoming events or special activities happening that day. The assembly area was just left of the lodge. Rey took a place next to Jyn on the logs that acted as seating for all the campers. 

Younger kids sat up front, which left the back row for the senior campers. Rose and Kay were on Rey’s right, and they looked down the row of senior boys as Finn waved, and Poe winked. 

Amilyn took her spot up front. “Good morning campers!”

“Good morning, Ms. Holdo!” The over one hundred and fifty campers echoed back.

“I want to give a massive Camp Mishawaka welcome to those of you who are returning to us!” Everyone started to clap and whoop excitedly. “For those of you who this is your first time at camp,” she paused and looked around, seeing many new faces. “Can I get all of our counselors to stand up, please.”

Jyn started to stand and then caught Rey’s elbow, pulling her up as well. 

“New campers, if you have any questions, please feel free to go to any of these staff members for help.”

Rey and Jyn both waved at the younger campers who turned around to look at them, before they sat down again. “We are going to make a great team this summer,” Jyn leaned over to whisper to Rey, and the young girl beamed back with a smile that could light up the entire sky. 

“Now campers…” Amilyn paused for dramatic effect. “I have some announcements!”

More than half of the campers had attended in the past, so they all groaned in unison and then broke out into a chorus of “Announcements, announcements, announcements! What a terrible way to die! What a terrible way to die!”

Rey swayed on her log as she belted out the camper call-out with Rose and Kay, both trying to be the loudest from their cabin. But as she started in on the first ‘terrible way to die,’ a chill ran down her spine, causing the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Rey felt like she was being watched. 

Turning her head to the right, she looked down the row and saw all the other campers were still singing, so she chanced a gaze over her left shoulder.

Perhaps twenty feet behind her, leaning up against an old oak tree, was a tall boy with dark hair and piercing brown eyes. 

He wore the dark blue counselor’s shirt, but the sleeves were cut off, and his defined arms were folded over his broad chest. His face was pale with sharp features and a prominent nose. His dark hair was long, curling around his shoulders, and he wore a sparse mustache and goatee. Full and pigmented lips were set into a line, and Rey had to admit that at first glance, he intrigued her. 

His gaze burned into hers for the few seconds it took Rey to appraise him, and the attention made her cheeks flame, and her chest tight, making her feel breathless. 

She could feel his eyes roaming over her body and for the first time in nine years, Rey felt childish for engaging in the camper’s chants. For some reason, even after only sharing a fleeting glance with the dark and brooding man, she wanted to know more about him. She wondered what his voice would sound like, if they had the same taste in music, or if his hair was as soft as it looked blowing in the gentle summer breeze. 

This feeling, one that she had not felt in a long time, one that that perhaps she had never felt with Jason—consumed her. Facing back forward, she shook her head slightly trying to refocus on the announcements Amilyn was making. Trapping her lower lip between her teeth, her mind wandered back to the boy standing behind her and for reasons she had yet to understand, it dawned on her that without even speaking to him, she liked him and wanted him to like her in return.

  
  



	2. Home Far Away

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you peaceblessingspeyton for being the beta for this story!!!
> 
> Thank you MyJediLife for perfecting my Clyde.

****

**Home Far Away**

September 11, 2001

The day that rocked a nation, but for eighteen-year-old Clyde Logan of Boone County, West Virginia, that Tuesday morning changed everything. 

He was just a few months out from graduation, never able to live up to the legendary reputation of his brother, Jimmy Logan. His brother—who took Valley View High School to the state championship three times, making him the definition of a hometown hero—but after watching the second tower fall, Clyde had something else heroic in mind. 

Clyde got in his forest green 1996 Ford pickup truck and left Joe Bang’s Auto Repair in the dust. 

His mama begged him to reconsider. Jimmy, with his leg propped up and an ice pack wrapped around his knee, laughed at the prospect. His little sister, Mellie, started crying before running down the hall and locking herself in her room. 

“There’re other things ya can do, bitty bug,” Mama said as she wiped her hands on the tattered apron tied around her waist.

Despite being a six-foot-two gangly teen, Clyde never outgrew his mama’s pet name. It didn’t help that Mellie also called him bitty bug, but Clyde did always have a soft spot for the women in his life. 

In these parts, boys were taught to respect their mama, and she was all the Logan children had left. Their daddy passed a few years back in a mining accident. Since then, Clyde and Jimmy looked out for their little sister, which she voiced her displeasure at since she was the only girl in the freshman class who had not been asked to homecoming. 

Clyde always hoped to escape the small town where his family was considered unlucky due to a series of very unfortunate events that spanned back generations. College seemed out of reach for someone who the teachers often called simple. It didn’t matter that Clyde only chose to speak when he had something of substance to say, and perhaps trigonometry was slightly beyond him, but his mama and Jimmy would never let Clyde believe he was empty-headed. 

So, while his mind couldn’t be swayed, Clyde did listen to his mama’s pleas to take his time, wait until they were sure there would be a war. 

They didn’t have to wait long. The very next day, President Bush declared war on whoever was responsible for the attacks, and Clyde hugged his mama as she cried into his chest. 

He promised to wait until Mellie finished the school year, and he still needed to work and help his mama with the bills until Jimmy found something steady. 

The West Virginia winter was harsh that year, but the spring brought new life to the hills of Boone County. Clyde worked for Joe Bang until his fingers split from being covered in oil and engine grim, but he had enough to make the trailer payment for the next six months. That gave him enough time to check one more thing off his bucket list before reporting for boot camp. 

A month ago, he had met with a recruiter and signed on the dotted line. Come August, Clyde Logan would be the property of the United States Army. 

It was a hot mid-June afternoon as Clyde threw a duffle bag behind the bench seat of his truck. His brother was rocking back and forth to take the pressure off his bum knee, mama and Mellie were standing on the porch of their double-wide. 

“Ya know there is ocean just east a piece,” Jimmy commented and nodded his chin over his shoulder. “No need for ya to go that far south.”

“Coinjock ain’t no beach. I wanna see girls with them thong swimsuits like on that Vice show Daddy used to watch.”

Jimmy couldn’t help but laugh at Clyde’s frankness. His brother never talked about girls like that, and if it weren’t for the fact that Jimmy paid for the hotel room last year at prom, he would be sure that his brother was naive to women. 

“Now ya just making me want to go wit-cha,” Jimmy slapped Clyde on the shoulder and stepped to the side so his mama could get a hold of her baby boy. 

“Promise to call, bitty,” she said, and fussed with the buttons on her son’s short-sleeved shirt. 

“I will, Mama, and you’ll be seeing me before ya know it.” Clyde leaned over and kissed the top of his mama’s head, and calmed her enough for her to quit sniffling, so he looked around for his sister. 

“Mels, come say bye to yer brother,” Mama insisted. 

When the blonde teen didn’t move, Clyde took a few giant steps across the yard to the base of the stairs to look up at his sister. “Come now, MJ. Don’t be like that.”

Mellie stood her ground, arms folded behind her back and a defiant pout on her glossy lips. But Clyde’s big brown eyes did her in every time, and she huffed dramatically. “This is from Jimmy and I,” she held out a small package wrapped with an old brown paper grocery bag. 

“Jimmy and _me_ ,” he teased, knowing that his sister would definitely not miss him sitting at the second-hand kitchen table and correcting her homework. 

She playfully slapped him on the shoulder. “Open it already, would ya?”

Clyde chuckled and tore off the paper to reveal the yellow and black box of a disposable camera. “It’s so ya can send us pictures of sunsets.”

“Sunrises, Mels,” Jimmy corrected. “He’s headed to the east coast, but I want pictures of those thongs he went on about.” He clapped his left hand on Clyde’s shoulder while holding a freshly opened beer in the other. 

Mellie hugged her brother around the middle before mama came to hold her hand as the women watched Clyde and Jimmy walk back down to the truck. 

“Ya need to take care of ’em,” Clyde said, his voice just above a whisper. 

“I know.” Jimmy took a swig from the brown bottle. 

“They will lose the trailer if ya can’t hold down work.”

The next drink Jimmy took from the beer was a little more aggressive. “Don’t ya worry about Mama and Mels. I’m the man of this family now. Ya can head on out to Palm Springs, or wherever yer goin’.”

Clyde didn’t have any fight left in him. The past six months had been a struggle to get his family to understand. So, he didn’t apologize for his doubt, or try to correct Jimmy that Palm Springs was in California and not Florida, and instead just let out a sigh with a dip of his head and clapped his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “I’ll be seein’ ya ‘round.”

His mother and sister waved from the porch as Jimmy held his wide stance on the gravel patch in front of the double-wide trailer. 

As he bumped down the rutted road, Clyde thought back to his sister calling him selfish for leaving. He remembered going and sitting at his daddy’s grave and explaining that he had to go, that he wasn’t just doing this for himself or his country. Clyde didn’t need much, and any extra that the Army provided him would be sent back to his family. 

Rolling down the window, Clyde let the hot June air rush through his dark, longish hair, before he secured the picture of the four remaining Logan’s to the CD holder strapped to the driver’s side visor. 

He stopped just over the Kentucky border to get gas and a fresh pack of cigarettes. Clyde knew it was a disgusting habit, one that he picked up working around Joe Bang, but these days it seemed to be the only thing to calm his nerves. 

As he drummed the pack against the steering wheel to compress the tobacco, Clyde couldn’t deny the anxiety that hung behind the certainty of going to war. Being told his entire life that he wasn’t clever and would be stuck in Boone County, just like his parents, had both hindered and ignited Clyde’s drive to do something more. 

Maybe that is why it took a sense of patriotism and the promise of a steady paycheck from Uncle Sam to get Clyde out of the unsatisfying comfort of his life in Danville, West Virginia. As he drove through the narrow tip of Virginia and entered North Carolina, he thought about all the different people he would meet, and the places that he would go. He thought about buying his mama a proper home and sending Mels to beauty school. 

Clyde made it to Charlotte just around suppertime and mused that in the span of six hours, he drove through five states. The route he took was longer, but he avoided tolls and larger cities, winding his way down the back roads of God’s county. 

Deciding to stay the night, he paid for a cheap motel and ate chicken fried steak at a diner with cracked red seats and tarnished chrome barstools. Even in a city filled with history, Clyde stuck to the quiet spots, to what still felt like home. 

The next day he would make his way down to Greenville. South Carolina would mark the furthest that Clyde had ever been away from Boone County. The second glass of sweet tea turned in his belly with nervous anticipation, but also excitement. 

In a few short months, he would arrive at Fort Benning as a recruit and undergo six weeks of what he suspected will be close to hell—with the hope of coming out the other side as a steadfast soldier. He wanted his mama to see him in his dress greens and be proud, to understand why this was so important to him. 

But from the moment in the run-down diner in the middle of North Carolina until then, Clyde would make this time his. He would feel sand between his toes, sun on his face, maybe shack up with a girl or two, the beauty of it was that, for the summer, Clyde was free. 

He took his time checking out the next morning and made it to Greenville in just over two hours. Putting down another forty bucks to fill the gas tank, Clyde was determined to make it through Georgia that day, wanting to plant his feet on a Florida beach at sunrise. 

An accident on I-85 just outside of Greenville had traffic backed up, and Clyde took the next exit off the large interstate to wind his way through the back roads. State Road 29 took him around Hartwell Lake and into Georgia. The trees were green, and with the windows down, the noise from the cicadas was almost deafening. 

Heat rose from the patchy blacktop as Clyde lit another cigarette, smoke curled up, and burned his eyes as he squinted into the afternoon sun. He stopped for gas in Hartwell and looked at the map pinned up on the station wall. Tracing his finger down the decades’ old paper, he figured that he could stay on 29, take it down to Athens and bypass Atlanta altogether. 

With a new plan in place, Clyde slid back behind the wheel of his pickup with new energy and continued west. 

Twenty minutes later, he was edging over into the grass shoulder, cursing under his breath as smoke rose from under the hood, and the gage on the dash read hot. 

“Fuck!” Clyde yelled out into the cow pastures that surrounded him, not only at his poor luck, but also how the metal hood burned into the heel of his hand as he propped it up to get a look at the engine. 

Smoke that smelled like burning oil plumed out as steam hissed from a cracked hose off to the left. Clyde worked at Joe’s for about a year, but only did oil changes or made parts runs, but even with his limited knowledge this looked bad. 

Angry at the truck, and the universe, and himself, Clyde took a few paces away and lit up another cigarette and waited for the nicotine to calm his nerves. 

It was an hour before the engine stopped smoking, and Clyde had moved to sit on the lowered tailgate, more than half a dozen cigarette butts littered the ground below his feet. He was about to try crank the truck up, seeing if he could limp it further down the road or if he needed to start walking. 

At this moment, he cursed not listening to his sister and getting a cell phone, but this was also when he saw a large John Deere tractor coming his way. 

A farmer who appeared to be in his late forties pulled up beside the truck, and he opened the cab door. “Engine trouble?”

“Think I blew a gasket,” Clyde answered while shielding his eyes from the afternoon sun. 

“Closest town is Royston, but we ain’t got no mechanic there. You’ll need to head a little ways north to Canon. Bobby will treat ya fair.”

Clyde moved to the cab of the truck, pulling out the map that he shoved between the seats. “How far is that from here?”

“‘Bout twenty minutes,” the farmer answered. “You think you can make it, or I can call for a tow?”

Thinking about the limited money in his wallet, Clyde figured that the truck was already broke, and another twenty minutes couldn’t hurt. “She should be able to get me there.”

“Well…” the older man held out his hand.

“Clyde, sir.”

“Sam, nice to meet ya. Hope you make it and tell Bobby that I sent ya.”

“Will do,” Clyde answered with a small but friendly pull at his lips and returned Sam’s handshake. Soon the tractor was chugging down the road and turning into a field. Clyde sat behind the wheel again, petted the dash of the truck and cooed, “Alright, old girl. Don’t let me down now…”

The V6 roared to life, but the cracked hose still hissed. Clyde said a little prayer and shifted into drive. Keeping his speed low, he looked for the turnoff in Royston, and just as Sam promised, he pulled into Canon Motors some twenty minutes later—and not a minute too soon. 

Smoke and steam billowed from the truck again, and Clyde pulled the key from the ignition with a long and tired sigh. Sitting out in the Georgia sun had taken it out of him. 

A man older than the farmer walked from inside the shop, wiping his hands on a red rag and tucking it back into this grease-stained coveralls. “That don’t look good.”

“I don’t reckon so,” Clyde answered as he stepped out of the truck. “I sure hope yer Bobby.”

“That’s what they call me,” the man said and pointed to the worn patch over his left chest. 

“Sam, from just east of Royston, sent me.”

Bobby smiled and stuck out his still oil-covered hand, “Any friend of Sam’s…”

“Not a friend really, just kind enough to check on a kid stranded on the side of the road.”

“Here nor there,” Bobby waved it off. “Where ya from?”

Clyde told the old mechanic his story - that he was on his way down to Florida to see the beach before going to boot camp. Bobby served in Vietnam before retiring back on the family homestead in Canon. 

“Tell you what, Clyde. Just a few blocks that way, Ms. Watson runs a little inn. Tell her I say you get the family discount. Dean and Sue run a little restaurant just a little further up. Settle in for the night and then meet me back here the morning so we can take a look at that engine.”

Clyde was thankful to still be in the south, doubtful if he would get such treatment if he had wanted to see New York instead. “Thank ya for your kindness, sir. I’ve done a little work in a shop before and should be of some help.”

In true southern fashion, Ms. Watson made up a small room for Clyde, and he paid $25 for the night. Dinner at the Sunny Side Up Cafe was hot and sat well in his stomach. The bed at the inn was just slightly too small, and his feet hung over the edge, but the fan worked well, and so did the air conditioning. 

The next morning he walked back down to Canon Motors, and Bobby already had the truck on the lift. “Mornin’, Clyde. Sure wish I had better news for ya.”

“It’s the head gasket, ain’t it?”

“‘Fraid so.” Bobby pulled out the dipstick and showed the young man the congealed oil. 

Clyde pushed off the truck with a frustrated sigh and ran his fingers through his hair. “How much we talkin’?”

He already knew that he couldn’t afford to fix the truck. Clyde planned on finding work in Florida to pay his way until boot camp. He had to leave most of his earnings with mama.

“Probably more than the truck is worth,” Bobby answered honestly and with remorse. “Where were you headed? Maybe you can still catch the bus.”

This gave him pause, and he looked over the old beat-up pickup. He took Heathyr to the prom in it, drove his sister down to the swimmin’ hole, even took a loan against it a few times to bail Jimmy out of holding. The old Ford wasn’t just the means of getting from point A to point B. It was his freedom before making the most significant commitment of his life. 

“Ya don’t suppose I could work it off—help out ‘round here some?”

“I’m sorry, Clyde. I ain’t got enough business to take someone on.” Bobby watched the young man pace, and his Christian heart hurt for the soon to be a soldier. 

“What am I gonna do?” Clyde hissed to himself.

Bobby sent down a wrench and wiped his hands and then remembered, “There might be somethin’.” Clyde’s expression was hopeful as Bobby continued, “We have a camp off Starrs Bridge Road. It starts up in about a week, and word ‘round town is they are still looking for folks to be counselors.”

“A summer camp?” 

“It runs for about a month and a half for the staff. My daughter did it a few years back. Said it was fun, and she was able to make enough for first and last on an apartment in Atlanta.”

Clyde knew the city was expensive and wondered if he could make enough to repair the truck, make a quick trip to Florida, and send the rest home for his mama and Mels...but a summer camp? Could he make it through a whole month of watching brats run amok?

Canon seemed even smaller of a town than Danville, and Clyde didn’t want to turn his nose up at the prospect of paying work that also offered a place to lay his head at night. 

“I hate to ask for anything else of ya—”

Bobby smiled. “I can take ya up there in about an hour if you wanna go grab your things from the inn.”

That Saturday was a whirlwind of activity. Bobby drove him out to the west side of town, and Clyde gazed with wide eyes as they passed under the wooden sign for Camp Mishawaka. His parents would send Jimmy to football camp, but there was not enough left over for Clyde or Mels, so this was a completely new experience for him.

He was left in the care of Amilyn Holdo, who was also the principal of Franklin County High School during the rest of the year. Apparently, his responsibility to the Army and the fact that he spent many hunting seasons up in a blind with his daddy made Clyde the perfect person to teach groups of rambunctious kids how to shoot bows and BB guns. 

With his father’s old duffle bag filled with his belongings and the beat-up guitar case, Clyde shook hands with Ms. Holdo and moved into a single bunk room across from the camp’s pool. 

Six weeks—he would stay in Canon and work at Camp Mishawaka for six weeks—and then be able to move on with the rest of his life. 

* * *

Campers would be arriving the next Saturday. Many returning counselors were able to skip out on the first few days of orientation. A red-haired man who insisted on being called by his last name, Hux, moved into the room next to Clyde, and a woman taller than himself named Gwen was on the other side. 

Hux said his parents were punishing him by making him work the camp, and Gwen was getting her degree in child psychology and wanted to study youth up close and personal. 

The trio sat with four other new counselors for hours of Holdo going on about how to treat the campers. They had a nurse from town come in and demonstrate CPR and the Heimlich. Hux rolled his eyes at the role plays on how to calm down campers who were homesick, or bring in the ones who are disruptive. 

“Now, I want to talk to you all about sexual activity,” Holdo said in an unusually chipper tone. She smirked at getting the groups full attention. “I have stopped trying to hinder relationships between counselors, you are all adults, but I do ask that if any of you should find summer love, that you be discreet about it around the campers.”

She looked between the redhead and the tall blonde who were already making eyes at each other. “With that being said, sexual relationships between or with campers is strictly prohibited. Anything beyond kissing between campers should be stopped and reported to senior staff or me.” With a raised eyebrow, Holdo looked around the room again. “Am I understood?”

A few voiced their agreement, while others just nodded. Clyde figured that Ms. Holdo’s warning came from past experience, and he couldn’t fathom what someone his age would want with a child that would be attending summer camp. He also mused that the last thing he needed was a fleeting romance before being sent to hell and back with the Army. 

That afternoon, Clyde met the groundskeeper, who was affectionately named Chewie. He also couldn’t believe that, within the past day, he met two people taller than himself—but Chewie, much like Gwen, was a gentle giant—and they rode around in the camp pickup truck as Clyde was shown the grounds. 

Out past a small pavilion which doubled as the arts and crafts area and the camp store, were the stables and paddocks where the ten horses were housed. Still past that, was a dirt road that led out to the archery and BB range. 

Clyde found it peaceful among the oaks and pines. If he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath of the humid air, he could almost believe that his daddy and Jimmy were there with him, telling him to keep both eyes open and squeeze through the recoil. He took down a twelve-point the year of his daddy’s accident, and his daddy had been so proud that even though they didn’t have the money, he had the deer mounted. 

The rest of the week Clyde spent most of his time with Chewie, cleaning the BB guns and restringing the bows, all while going over safety. Most of Clyde’s shooting practice had been out in the woods or at cans in the backyard, but he understood range safety and didn’t want to be responsible for some kid losing an eye. 

He learned that Hux was an all-star swimmer back at his private college, so he would be in charge of the pool and when campers would be out on the lake. Gwen was on a tennis scholarship, so she would be minding the court sports. 

Other counselors started showing up, Jyn, who would be over the senior girls, and Cassian, who was with the senior boys. Dani, who was with some of the younger campers, told Clyde that Jyn and Cas were an item last year. Over the last week, Clyde had already started to hear some suspicious noises coming through the thin walls between his and Hux’s room. 

Clyde again resolved himself to get through the next month, unattached and with no new complications, so that he could pay for his truck and be on his way. 

* * *

The Saturday the campers arrived was pure chaos, but since they were not assigned to cabins, Clyde and Hux skipped out for some of the day and went into town. He bought a couple more packs of cigarettes, knowing he could only smoke them when campers weren’t around, as well as some other necessities like a bar of Irish Spring and a few bags of sunflower seeds. 

He spent the rest of the afternoon out at the range, spraying and killing wasp nests that seemed to pop up overnight, and checking that the target stands were firmly rooted in the soft soil. Clyde ate dinner in the counselor’s lounge with Hux, Gwen, and Dani before retiring to his room to pluck at his guitar before hitting the sack. 

It would be all hands on deck the next day.

* * *

Clyde couldn’t complain about the camp food and while blueberry pancakes were his favorite, the stack of chocolate chip ones set up in the counselors dining room made him think of Mels. He would need to write or call when he got a chance, but the few strips of burnt bacon made him smile and wink at Helen, who ran the kitchen.

In the past week, he had sweat through the five camp shirts Holdo gave him. It wasn’t that the heat was unbearable, but rather he was a large guy that already gave off a lot of body heat, so sweating was inevitable. What he could do was cut the sleeves off a few of the shirts to allow better airflow and prevent noticeable pit stains. 

Not being attached to a cabin, and perhaps running a little late from sneaking in a cigarette after breakfast, Clyde leaned up against an oak tree near the back of the assembly area that was up the hill from his lodging. 

The campers were practically vibrating with excitement, and Holdo was animated with her welcome. Then the counselors were introduced, and Clyde thought he met most of them over the past week, but there was one, sitting in the back row next to Jyn and with the rest of the senior girl campers.

She was something to behold. Clyde was embarrassed by spending as much time as he did looking at the backs of her long tan legs. The cut off jean shorts ended just below the cleft of her ass, and Clyde swallowed the lump in his throat at the sight. 

Chestnut hair was pulled into a ponytail high on the top of her head, and when she turned back over her shoulder to look at him, her eyes appeared a bright green in the morning sun. Her smile was blinding; rows of perfect white teeth made him self conscious of his crooked grin. 

For reasons he could not understand, he wanted to know the sound of her laugh and the taste of her skin. Girls in Danville didn’t look like her, no one he’d ever met made him feel like this—like he needed to stand taller and brush his unruly hair back away from his eyes. 

Clyde felt that perhaps he had the same effect on her. She sat with her back straight, seemed less carefree, which made him—he tried to place the emotion—upset that he caused that. He wanted to see her smile and sing along with the campers, perhaps a little disgusted with himself, Clyde became jealous of a drop of sweat that slid down her neck and disappeared under the collar of her maroon counselor shirt, wondering what path down her tanned skin it would take and what it would be like to follow it with his lips.

As he watched her turn and smile at the Asian girl sitting to her right, he made up a story about her, how she had a protective father, and a mother who would warn her about men like him. He thought that surely she had someone waiting for her back where she came from, someone better looking, someone who sure had more to offer than he did.

His mind ran wild, pondering what a girl like that would want with a simple-minded man from West Virginia who had no other aspirations or prospects but to become a soldier. Maybe one day he could make something of himself, be deserving of a woman like that, but for now, all that was waiting for him was a family that depended on him and a job changing oil for Joe Bang. 

No, this summer was about him, with no attachments, no one else he would have to leave behind, not if—but when—the Army sent him to fight an enemy still unknown. He couldn't drag someone into that life...especially a girl like her. 

So even though it felt like a magnetic force had been forged between them, Clyde pulled his attention away from the girl and watched as Cas took center stage and started explaining the activities for the day. 

  
  



	3. Growing Like A Breeze

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to my lovely betas and especially MyJediLife who is my Clyde expert.

**Growing Like A Breeze**

Clyde spent the rest of the assembly in a daze of tan legs and moss green eyes. He came to only when everyone stood for the pledge of allegiance, in which he snapped to attention and placed his right hand over his heart while reciting the thirty-one words to the flag he would soon be pledging to protect with his life. 

The campers finished with a round of applause and a few whoops and hollers, and Clyde watched the kids scatter down the hill to the common area. He looked around for the girl with chestnut hair, and found her talking with Holdo. 

“Come on, Logan,” Hux called out, apparently feeling the need to call everyone by their last name. “We gotta get down to our stations.”

By the time Clyde’s gaze shifted from the girl to Hux and back, she was gone. 

Since Rey was not quite a camper, but also not really a counselor, she would be straddling the two roles. Looking back at the man with dark hair, she also mused that she had all the responsibility but not allowed to have the fun she felt she needed deep in her gut. Holdo pulled Rey aside after the assembly, and even though she could still feel his whiskey eyes following her, she tried to pay attention. 

Beyond her duties at the stables in the morning, she would be assisting other counselors with their activities so that next year when she returned, she could easily pick up the responsibility. 

Holdo asked Rey to come by the office after she got done with the horses so that she could dole out the assignments. Rey caught a lift on the golf cart with Sarah out to the stables and started in on mucking the stalls. Cleaning the stalls wasn’t her favorite task, but she loved being able to take a dip in the pool after a hard morning’s work.

There wouldn’t be riding that day. After campers selected their activities for the next two weeks, everyone would meet back up at the lodge for lunch, then again at the cabins for introductions and bonding. 

By ten in the morning, Rey had worked up a sweat and wanted nothing more than to do a few laps in the pool, but she had to meet up with Holdo. The office was quiet and thankfully air-conditioned, even though in the confined space Rey could smell the distinct smell of BO and horse manure.

She knocked softly on the doorframe, “Is now a good time?”

“Rey! Come on in!” Holdo pulled the glasses off her nose and smiled while gesturing for Rey to take a seat in one of the tattered chairs across the old wooden desk. “You look like you could use a swim.”

Rey had to laugh. She could only imagine how dirty and haggard she appeared. “That’s the plan.”

“Which is kind of perfect,” Holdo picked up a stack of papers, shuffling them and then pulling out a few. “I wish I could make this fair and let you pick, but we have a full house this summer, and I need you to hook up with the counselors with the most kids.”

Over the past nine years, there wasn’t an activity that the camp offered that Rey had not tried —and mastered—so she was more than happy to help out. “Whatever you need! I’m your girl.”

“You sure are,” Amilyn said with the affection of a motherly figure. But then she cleared her throat, knowing that any further down that line of thought and Rey would be in tears. “So, Sarah still needs you in the morning to help with the horses, but after that, it would be great if you could help out Armitage in the pool.”

“Armitage?” Rey tried the name out as her face twisted with confusion. 

Holdo giggled. “Red head, so pale that I’m waiting for him to catch on fire in this sun…”

“Oh...yeah, I think I saw him at assembly.”

“He’s teaching freestyle swimming at 10:30, and I figured it would be a good way for you to cool off.”

“That would be great! What about after lunch?”

“After lunch…” Amilyn shifted the papers again. “You can either do arts and crafts with Quinn, or archery and BBs with Clyde.”

Rey remembered Quinn from last year, a perky blonde from Athens who was the counselor for Cabin 2 this year with the ten to twelve-year-olds, but the other one… “Who’s Clyde?”

Holdo smiled. “Tall guy, dark hair, quiet, and kinda strange looking…”

Even in the chill of the office, Rey’s neck felt hot, like someone or something was pulling at her chest. She almost wanted to correct Holdo, tell her that this boy...man—Clyde wasn’t strange looking. He was striking, and before Rey could stop herself, she blurted out, “Archery!”

“Well, then…” Holdo raised her eyebrow.

Rey started to backtrack, “You know that I’m better with the outdoors type of activities. Never was one for making lanyards, or gluing together popsicle sticks.”

“I remember,” Amilyn laughed as she looked over her shoulder at the crooked picture frame made of popsicle sticks from six years ago. She couldn’t tell if Rey was blushing, or if she got too much sun while putting the horses out, but the camp leader scribbled down a few notes before looking back up. “So Sarah, Armitage, lunch, and Clyde. Then you can have a free hour while the other campers swim before dinner.”

“That sounds great!” Rey said with maybe too much excitement.

Holdo finished writing down a few more notes before she stood from her chair and handed the schedule to Rey. “I hope you know how much we appreciate you helping out this year. If it were anyone other than you, I would be hesitant to give over so much responsibility.” The older woman’s expression softened, and she laid a hand on Rey’s warm and freckled shoulder, “But over these past nine summers, you have earned my respect and my trust.”

Rey heard the loving tone of her mentor’s voice, but also saw the warning her eyes to not break that trust. With a weary smile, Rey nodded, “Thank you for this opportunity, Amilyn. I won’t let you down.” 

As she skipped out of the office and down the worn path to the cabins, Rey just hoped that with working so closely with tall, dark, and mysterious that she would be able to keep that promise. 

The main yard of the camp was deserted apart from a few counselors wandering around. Usually before lunch on the first day, the campers were taken on a hike around the hundred and forty-three acre plot that included a large lake, stretching fields, paths carved through dense forest, and lastly, brought them back around the paddocks and back to the camp. 

Knowing that she had about an hour to get in some laps before lunch, Rey scampered off to the cabin to grab her one-piece swimsuit. She brought a few bikinis, including an American flag-themed one for the Fourth of July, but for doing laps and teaching class, she would cut down on the possibility of embarrassment and wear her one piece. 

Being mindful of pool rules, Rey took her suit and towel back up to the lodge where the senior girl’s bathroom was located on the bottom floor. Stripping out of her sweat-drenched clothes was heavenly, and she quickly scrubbed herself down in the shower before shimmying into her black swimsuit. 

It was modest and from last year’s style. The black fabric came up high on her chest, not that Rey had much to show off, but the mesh cut-outs at her sides hinted at something more mature. The suit was sleek and didn’t have any drag in the water. It fit her like a second skin, and even the coolness of the pool would set her nipples on edge. 

Looking at herself once more in the mirror and flipping her Target brand aviators down over her eyes, Rey wrapped her towel around her waist and balled up her dirty clothes before setting out for the pool. 

The gate was closed but not locked, and Rey let herself in. Setting her ball of clothes on the cement pool deck, she hung her towel over the fence and then made her way towards the stairs on the shallow end. 

Back home, she had to take two buses to get to the YMCA, so Rey hardly was able to swim, but even at eight years old, she had taken to water like a fish. 

The water was cool and clear as she lowered herself under the surface. Holding her breath for just a moment, Rey opened her eyes and felt the sting of the chlorine before coming up and sweeping her hair back off her forehead. Taking a few paces back until her back hit the wall on the shallow end, she took in a deep breath and dipped down, kicking off the wall and starting her laps. 

With the sun warm on her back, Rey pushed her arms through the water and kicked her legs in time, diving under and turning before pushing off the wall again. She switched between backstroke and breaststroke before she ended up bobbing in the deep end and panting for breath. Her muscles burned in a way that running never accomplished, and she dipped her head back into the water once more before swimming back over to where her towel hung. 

“Not bad,” called a voice from outside the gate. 

Rey looked up and saw the red-haired man leaning up against the fence by her towel. “You must be Armitage,” she replied. 

“It’s Hux, but yeah, that’s me.” He coolly swept his pale hair back from his sweat dotted forehead. “And who might you be?”

Pushing herself up out of the pool, Rey walked to her towel and wrapped it around her body, knowing that while wet, Hux could see every curve. “I’m Rey. I’ll be helping out with your swim classes for the summer.”

Hux sniffed out a laugh, “We might have to work on your form a little if you plan to teach others.”

Rey mirrored his snort and started to squeeze the water out of her hair, “I don’t mind the correcting, but you might want to remember that we will be working with kids—and this is supposed to be fun.”

A movement behind Hux turned Rey’s focus, and she saw Clyde walk out of his room and cup his hands around his mouth before exhaling a plume of smoke. Maybe it was the look on her face, or the fact that she was utterly ignoring Hux, but she came to when he waved his hand in front of her face. 

“Have you met Logan?” Hux asked with a smirk. 

Rey turned back to the redhead. “I haven’t, but I thought his name is Clyde.”

“Oh, it is...but Clyde is just about as bad as Armitage, so I’m sticking with last names.”

She giggled at Hux, thinking that Armitage was way worse, and when her eyes tracked back to Clyde, his face was set in a deep frown as he scrubbed his half-smoked cigarette on the rough wooden wall to extinguish the cherry. He turned without a second look her way and retreated into his room with a slam of his door. 

“Not very friendly, is he?” Rey inquired, feeling a little hurt.

Hux looked over his shoulder at the counselor rooms and then back at Rey, “I think that is just his face. Logan’s a quiet one. I’m still waiting on him to come out of his shell.”

After feeling their connection that morning at the assembly, Rey wasn’t sure why he would now act coldly towards her. Maybe he had seen her in her swimsuit and was no longer interested in her boyish physique. Perhaps she read too much into their exchange. Could it be possible that he didn’t feel it too?

Her frown matched his, and she leaned down to retrieve her clothes. “Well I better be getting back and cleaned up before lunch. I’ll see you tomorrow at 10:30.”

Rey walked the hundred or so paces up to Cabin 8, and may have looked over her shoulder a few times to see if Clyde re-emerged. Even when she passed his room on her way to the bathroom to shower and change, she saw no movement. 

When she sat down with her friends at lunch, Rey couldn’t help but be a little sullen. Pushing the beef and macaroni mixture around her plate, she thought back to his dark eyes boring into her when she laughed with Hux. Surely he didn’t believe that she had a thing for Armitage. 

“Earth to Rey!” Kay said, while waving her hand in front of her friend’s face. 

Rey blinked a few times and then looked between her friends on either side of her. “Sorry, must have gotten too much sun today. What were you saying?”

“We asked what activities you signed up for?” Rose asked again. 

“Amilyn asked me to help out with some of the activities that were overbooked.”

“Wow,” Kay said. “You are taking this counselor in training thing seriously.”

With a shrug, Rey shoved a spoon full of beef-a-roni into her mouth, not bothering to chew before answering. “I mean, yeah. I want a job here next year, and it would be nice to know the ropes by then.”

“So, who are you shacking up with?” Rose said while raising her eyebrows. 

Rey tried to hide her blush by taking a long drink of tea. “I’ll be with Sarah in the morning to tend to the horses, then with Hux for swim lessons…”

“Which one is he?” Kay asked. “Maybe we can find Rose a real man and get her off Finn, who is too chicken shit to ask her out.”

“He’s not too chicken shit,” Rose protested, with a fry tossed Kay’s way. “We are fine with being just friends.”

“That’s a larger load of horse shit than I shoveled out of those stalls today,” Rey laughed as Rose’s cheeks flamed. “Hux is the pale redhead.”

“Oh, the one with the pretty eyes?” Kay inquired.

At the moment, Rey was more fond of dark whiskey eyes, but she smiled back at her friend. “That’s the one.”

“What about your afternoons?” Rose asked, ready for the attention to be off of her. 

“Archery,” Rey answered simply and put more food in her mouth. 

“That’s with the tall, quiet one,” Kay observed. “I think half of Cabin 3 signed up for his class.”

Cabin 3 was the twelve to fourteen-year-old girls, and Rey could only think of one reason why girls of that age would be interested in bows and arrows. 

* * *

For the rest of the afternoon, everyone returned to their cabins, and returning campers helped the new arrivals set up their bunks, lending power strips and sharing the best way to keep sand out of the bed. 

Jyn put music on her boombox, and the girls had a dance party while going around the cabin and introducing themselves. There were three bunks in the corner Rey had claimed, and they met Kelly, who was seventeen and usually attended camp in Kentucky, but came to Mishawaka when her family moved to Atlanta. 

Kelly fit into their group immediately. She was a fantastic storyteller, having the girls in stitches with antics back home. Much like Rey, Kelly played sports at her high school, and Rey was happy to have a running partner when swimming wasn’t enough to satisfy her need to move. 

Kay and Kelly hit it off as well. They were about the same height and had matching blue-green eyes, but where Kay was blonde, Kelly had waves of dark brown hair. The other glaring difference between Kay and Kelly was that the brunette was as straight as the day is long, having already gushed about the boyfriend she left back in Kentucky. 

The two other girls, Hannah, with latte colored skin and amber eyes, was bunked above Kelly, and Ali, who could be mistaken for Rey’s sister, was above Kay, and were both from South Carolina. In some wordless conversation, Kay and Hannah kept exchanging glances and soft knowing smiles, and Rey had a sneaking suspicion that before the two weeks were up, one of them would request switching bunks. 

Having already showered twice that day, Rey decided to sit out on the cabin steps and indulge in one of her favorite treats—gummy bears. From her perch, she saw Clyde sitting in a pop-up camping chair, his dark hair having more volume in the humid night air, and a guitar propped in his lap as he strummed a lazy melody. 

Clyde felt like he was being watched, so he raised his head to look around. There, under a single lamp that cast yellow light on the steps of Cabin 8, was the girl. She was slowly moving her hand from a bag in her lap up to her mouth, and he watched her jaw work. 

Even in the dim light of the evening, Clyde could see her features clear as day, as if he had not already memorized them. He wasn’t sure if they were staring at each other for seconds or hours, but he stopped breathing when she lifted her hand, a coy smile pulled at her lips as she gave him a slight wave. 

“What you up to, Logan?” Hux asked, coming up behind him and clapping Clyde on the shoulder. 

‘Of course,’ Clyde thought, looking between Hux and the girl. She had smiled and laughed with the ginger earlier that day, so it was reasonable to assume that the wave was not for him. 

Turning his face back down towards the guitar, Clyde continued slowly plucking away at his Pop’s favorite John Denver song. “Ain’t doin’ nothin’.”

Hux chuckled. “Well if you are bored of doing nothin’, Gwen and I are going down to the lake to smoke.”

Just then, the tall blonde walked out of her cabin in just a pair of jean shorts and a crop top. Hux gave her a low whistle and then whispered, “On second thought, how about you stay here...third wheel and all.”

“Wasn’t plannin’ on movin’ from this here spot anyhow.” Clyde shifted a cigarette out of the pack that stayed in the front pocket of his button-down and cupped his hands around the end as it glowed red. 

Taking in a long drag and feeling the smoke burn in his lungs, Clyde looked back up, but the cabin steps were empty. He wasn’t sure what upset him more, that the girl had a thing for Hux even after he felt something between them at the assembly, or the fact that Hux was being a player and flaunting Gwen in front of the girl. 

Blowing out smoke into the star scattered sky, he also mused that he really needed to find out her name. 

* * *

The next morning, the bell rang just like the morning before. Campers woke and walked to the bathrooms while rubbing the sleep from their eyes. Breakfast was bacon and eggs, and everyone met up at the assembly again, but this time it was quicker, just a short prayer and then the Pledge of Allegiance before everyone was dismissed. 

The girl was in jean cut-offs and was wearing a white tank top. She sat next to Jyn again, and once assembly was over, hopped onto the golf cart with Sarah. As Clyde kicked at a tree root, he almost missed how she turned to look over her shoulder for one final glance at him. 

Clyde walked down to the place he was going to meet the campers for his first activity period. This group was with older campers, and they would be learning to shoot BB guns. He pulled the camo hat from his back pocket, and as he put it on, he made sure that his ears were still covered. “Y’all ready?” He called out to the campers, who, he was slightly relieved to see, were mainly boys. 

They walked out past the building where his room was, then past Cabins 8 and 9 and the camp store—where a group was already setting up arts and crafts at the picnic tables. 

The supplies for his class were stored in a shed by the stables, and he pulled the key out of his pocket as they approached. There was a red and black spiral lanyard attached to the keyring, and he thought of some past camper or counselor making it. 

He passed a BB gun to each camper, teaching them how to hold it safely even if they were not loaded, then he heard the starting notes of a Mile Ends song, and it made him miss his Mama. 

Just as the song was coming to its climax and Clyde was walking his campers down a dirt road towards the range, he saw movement off to the right, and saw a paint filly trotting around a ring. Then the girl came into view, holding a long lead and making a clicking sound from her soft-looking lips to urge the horse on. 

Her tan legs shone in the morning light, and her work boot covered feet shifted in the sand of the ring. She wore a long-sleeved green plaid shirt, which seemed strange for the warmth of the day, but it was tied up around her midriff, and he was able to see a sliver of her toned back. A straw cowboy hat shielded her face and eyes from the sun.

Clyde swallowed hard and thought that she looked like a fucking Dixie daydream.

She turned back towards him and, with a smile, pushed the brim of her hat back so that the rays of sunlight kissed her face and made her eyes sparkle. Still moving her body with the horse’s position, she lifted her free hand and waved at him.

Maybe she was being kind by making a show for the campers in his care, but Clyde couldn’t suppress the slight pull at the corner of his lips, and touched the brim of his hat while nodding in acknowledgment. 

Rey circled once more with the horse, but as soon as she could, she had her eyes back on Clyde. He was further down the road, a BB gun that looked like a toy slung over his broad shoulders. She admired how the muscles of his back shifted and stretched the cotton of his tee-shirt, how his jeans hugged his large thighs, and the adorable way his feet turned slightly in on each step. 

She wondered what he would feel like under her hands, how she could dig her fingernails into the corded muscle as he flexed over her. “What the hell…” Rey said to herself, shaking her head and turning her attention back to the horse. 

Sure, it had been a while for her, and the sex with Jason wasn’t spectacular, but Rey had never felt this strongly for a person she hadn’t even met officially.

Trying to rid her mind of the tall man with full lips and impossibly large hands, Rey went back to warming up the horses, knowing that she still had to get them saddled up and then back to the cabin to change for swim class in less than two hours. 

By the time 10:15 rolled around, Rey was ready for the pool. Petting her favorite mare, Padmé, on the nose, she waved to Sarah and moved in a half run to collect her suit. 

The one she wore that day was more modest, a racerback style in an emerald green color. She dressed in the shower again, knowing that no one wanted to swim in the grime that comes off her after spending two hours with the horses. Tying her hair up in a bun, Rey had enough time to take her dirty clothes back to the cabin and then meet Hux and thirty campers out by the pool. 

“Hello again, Rey.”

“Hey, Hux. You ready for this?” Rey asked as she started to see campers come out of cabins and bathrooms in their swimsuits. 

“I love spending my time making sure brats don’t drown,” he snarked. 

Rey laughed and hung her towel over the chain-link fence. Hux placed his towel next to hers and then pulled his shirt off, revealing more pale skin - and a slim but toned chest of someone who swims for exercise. It wasn’t enough to gain more than a few seconds of admiring from Rey. She had eyes for something a little—thicker. 

The campers came piling onto the pool deck, and once everyone was accounted for, Hux split them up into groups, those who wanted to learn advance swimming, and those who needed the fundamentals. 

With only five needing total supervision, Hux held out his hand, “This is Rey. She will help you build some confidence with being in the water.” He then winked at her and took the others to take turns practicing the different Olympic strokes. 

Rey rolled her eyes, but secretly loved that she got the five campers from the younger cabins. There were three girls and two boys in her group, and they followed her over to the stairs so that they could reach the bottom. 

First, she had them demonstrate how well they could swim. She stood about ten feet away from the stairs and had them paddle to her and then back. One of the boys had to get comfortable with putting his head underwater, while the other one could perhaps move into Hux’s group within a week. 

Her personal favorite was a young camper named Brownie. She was small for an eight-year-old, with pure blonde ringlets, a button nose, and pursed red lips. Brownie looked like a modern-day Shirley Temple in her My Little Pony one piece. 

The girl swam like a scared puppy, barely keeping her head above water as she flailed her arms and legs in something that resembled splashing more than swimming. Rey would need to keep her eyes on Brownie, and even held her up in the shallow end for a few extra seconds so the girl could catch her breath before pushing her off back towards the stairs. 

As Hux blew the whistle that hung around his neck, Rey made a mental note to ask about getting a few kickboards for her five campers. 

Rey watched the campers dry off and run back to their cabins to change. She ran her towel over her hair and then down her body. 

“Nice job today, Rey.”

She smiled back but wrapped her towel around her body as she watched his gaze drop to her chest. “Thanks. You too.” After a beat of silence, she rocked back on her heels, “Well, I’m going to change for lunch. I guess I’ll see you same time tomorrow.”

“Not if I see you first,” Hux said with another wink. 

A smile of platitude was all she could offer him before walking up the hill towards the cabin. Rey knew that after lunch she would be seeing Clyde, so she pulled out a pair of olive green shorts and a gray top. Checking the clock on the cabin wall, she had just enough time to grab a quick shower so that she didn’t smell like pool water, and then meet the girls for lunch. 

Burgers and fries were on the menu, and Rey pulled Helen, the woman who ran the kitchen, to the side, “Do you have any of that leftover bacon from this morning?”

Helen was what Rey thought having a grandmother would be like. She had wrinkles around her eyes, a rosiness to her cheeks, and could make a heart light with a smile - but also devastate someone with one disappointed look. “I have a few pieces, but they are a little burnt.”

Rey nodded enthusiastically, “That’s perfect!”

The crunch of the overdone bacon was just what Rey’s cheeseburger needed, and she spent lunch talking with her friends about their morning. Rose had, of course, joined the activities that Finn signed up for, and gushed about canoeing out on the lake. 

Kay and Hannah talked about their lives outside of Camp Mishawaka, and Rey couldn’t help but smile as the two girls leaned in towards each other, their shoulders touching, and heads dipped together as they laughed about their high schools. 

The bell rang, and Rey shoved the rest of her fries in her mouth while taking her plate to the dish drop off. She waved a quick goodbye to her friends and then made a pit stop at the bathrooms on the ground floor of the lodge. Pulling a tinted chapstick from her pocket, Rey applied some to her lips, pressing them together for just a hint of shine and color. 

Next, she smoothed her hair that had half-dried during lunch. The bun at the top of her head was messy enough to look effortless. Pulling her sunglasses from their place hanging on the collar of her shirt, Rey gave herself one more look before setting off across the grounds. 

She came upon the storage shed just as Clyde was giving his safety speech to the campers, and she stood at the back, smiling when she caught his eye. 

He stuttered for just a moment before turning back to the campers, “Alright y’all. Let’s move out.”

They both started moving through what felt like a sea of children, coming together somewhere in the middle and looking at each other for a long moment before Rey made the first move. 

“I’m Rey.” She said with a beaming smile, and held out her hand. “Amilyn asked me to help out some of the new counselors,” she could feel the blush creeping up from her chest, but that didn’t stop her mouth from continuing, “and I chose you.”

His mouth ran dry, and thankfully she was either extremely kind or equally stubborn, because even though he just gaped at her for a good thirty seconds, the girl, who he now knew was Rey, didn’t drop her hand, just waited patiently for him. 

So he wiped his sweaty palm on his jeans and then placed his hand in hers. 

She felt so small, his mitt of a hand dwarfing hers, but her palm was warm, and her grip was strong. They were shaking hands for an awkwardly long time as he stared down at where they were connected, and he wondered what would happen if he pulled her in close. 

Her giggle brought him out of his stupor, and he brought his gaze back up to her face. “Sorry, ma’am.” He pulled his hand back and shoved it into his jean pocket, as if by hiding it, his wandering thoughts would also be concealed. “I’m Clyde,” he spoke while touching the brim of his hat again and nodding politely. 

His southern drawl was deep and slow, and Rey wanted to feel it against her pulse point, nuzzled into her breasts, and hummed into her core. She pressed her legs together as her thoughts headed straight for the gutter, and she bit her lip while looking up at him through her lashes. Her body leaned towards him like two magnets drawn together.

“I know.”

  
  
  



	4. Painted On The Sky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm pretty sure this chapter has been edited...it's been sitting in my docs for weeks...like I forgot I wrote it. My bad! 
> 
> Thank you MyJediLife for helping with my Clyde-isms. 
> 
> I'll make a moody for this chapter shortly.

****

**Painted On The Sky**

After another pause where the world seemed to stop around them both, Rey let out a breathy giggle and reached into the shed and pulled out a bow and a quiver of arrows. Clyde, with the comically small BB gun slung over his shoulder, ran the hand that had been cupped in her, through his hair before gesturing down the dirt road. “Ladies first,” he drawled. 

The range was a five-minute walk from the stables, and they lingered at the back of the group of campers. The silence wasn’t uncomfortable, and as their arms swung at their sides, Rey could feel the heat coming off him, and she wanted to press her skin against his. 

Rey hung back while Clyde gave the safety speech to the campers. Small cups of BBs were handed out, and Rey walked down the line to check for any arrows that were too damaged to shoot correctly. Having taken up archery her first summer, Rey showed the campers how to hold the bow, draw back the line from the shoulder, and instructed them to balance the arrow before release. 

Down the line, she saw Clyde hovering around a group of girls from Cabin 3. She remembered Kay saying that these girls only signed up because they thought Clyde was hot, and while she could not fault their appreciation of the tall and handsome man, she also felt a knock in her chest as a sense of possession rose within her. 

“I don’t know if I can pump it.” One of the girls whined while turning around towards Clyde. 

Being mindful of where the barrel was pointing, Clyde took the gun and directed it away from his face and the other campers. “Ya gotta keep it pointed downrange, darlin’,” he said.

The girl giggled along with her friends, who were now also gathering around Clyde. “Can you show us how you pump it?”

Rey wanted to laugh at the fourteen-year-old’s attempt at seduction, and poor Clyde seemed to be oblivious. 

“Well, first, always keep the shootin’ end pointed away from ya’self or anyone else.” He demonstrated as he spoke. “Then ya can hold onto the butt…”

“Oh, so you grab the butt?” Another girl circled her finger around the wooden end of the gun. 

“Or ya can get a good grip on the barrel…”

“Grip the shaft,” the girl nodded with a smile. 

“The barrel...yes...and press the butt into yer hip for extra leverage.”

The first girl ran her hands along her jean shorts as she repeated, “Press the butt against your hip for leverage.”

Clyde blinked at the girl like she was as dull as people assumed he was. “That’s what I said.” He then looked back down to the gun. “Grab the handle,” he threaded his large fingers through the lever, “and pump three or four times. That should be all ya need to get a powerful shot.”

“Only four pumps,” the third girl now spoke, apparently getting courage from her friend. “That doesn’t seem like much. I’ve heard that it takes a lot more than that to get a good shot.”

Handing the gun back to the first girl, Clyde furrowed his eyebrows, “Whoever tellin’ ya such things is just trying to see ya get hurt. Too much pressure can cause an explosion, and then ya got a really big mess on ya hands.”

The girls all started giggling again, and Clyde looked at them like they were as just as mad as old Earl—who did nothing but drink and talk about the glory days. “I don’t see how this is a laughin’ matter…”

Rey walked up at that moment. She had enough with these girls clucking around Clyde, who was too sweet of a man to realize what was happening. “I think that is quite enough, girls.”

Three sets of pre-pubescent eyes turned towards Rey. “We were just getting an extra lesson…” Jessica, who Rey knew from last summer, spoke up. 

“I know exactly what you were doing, and it had nothing to do with shooting that BB gun, since you learned that last year.” The girls at least looked a little ashamed. “I’m sure Ms. Holdo would not appreciate being told that you were distracting a counselor from the safety of other campers.”

Their smug expressions dropped, “No, Miss Rey.”

“That’s what I thought. Now leave Clyde alone and go have some fun.”

Once the girls turned away, Clyde turned to Rey, “Ya didn’t have to fuss at them like that. They just needed a little more instruction.”

Rey looked at him with the same pity that she would show a lost puppy, “They were hitting on you, and the fact that you were talking about butts and hips, and pumping for leverage…” she snorted out a laugh when realization came over his face, “didn’t help at all.”

“Oh shit,” Clyde hissed and glanced at the group of young girls. “They couldn’t possibly think…” Then he whipped back around to Rey, “Ya didn’t think…”

“No,” she reassured him with a beaming smile. 

“Good, cause I can’t have no business with a youngin’.”

Rey nodded. She knew that this was the moment she should have told him that she was seventeen and a counselor in training. This is where she had her out, but bless her heart, she couldn’t bring herself to say a word. Instead, she just gave him a forced smile, “They just think you’re cute is all…”

He scoffed but didn’t reply. Rey reached out her hand and laid it on his bare arm, the warmth between them almost made her shiver. “Don’t count yourself out. Others around here share their taste in men.”

As a blush and shocked expression rose on his face, Clyde was about to ask if the present company was included, when he heard the bell ring off in the distance. He gave a soft sigh and then called the campers to order, and they started on the hike back to the storage shed. 

After securing the padlock and sending the campers back to their cabins to change for the free swim hour, he walked with his hands shoved deep in his pockets as Rey tried to keep pace with him. 

Just as they rounded the two-story building that housed Clyde’s room, Rey turned to him, “Do you think you would…”

But Dani, the counselor from Cabin 3, came bouncing up, “Hey, Clyde!” Then Dani shifted her gaze, “Oh, hello Rey. Would you mind? I need Clyde for a moment.”

Rey bit the inside of her cheek in an attempt not to tell Dani to fuck right off, and she could feel Clyde staring at the side of her face, but she put on a tight smile, “Of course. He’s all yours.”

Not bothering to look at him again, Rey walked off to the left and up the stairs of Cabin 8. She paced in front of her bunk. First, it was the campers, and now the counselor from Cabin 3. Where would it end?

Appraising her dirt-covered boots and the sweat stains on her tank, Rey felt foolish for thinking she had a chance with Clyde. Dani had a bright white smile with clear blue eyes, with her hair in a high ponytail that swayed and bounced just a perfectly as her large breasts. 

Clyde already said that he couldn’t get mixed up with a camper, and he was sure to find out sooner rather than later...maybe Dani was telling him right now. Maybe they were both laughing at her, mocking her girlish crush. Maybe Dani was touching his warm skin, finding out what it felt like to run her fingers through Clyde’s long and inky hair. 

With a frustrated growl, Rey put on a pair of running shorts and slid into the trainers that she got from the Nike outlet. She knew that one lap around the field was a half-mile. If she ran the circuit through the woods, it was three miles. 

After stretching out her calves on the steps outside of the cabin, Rey took off towards the tree line. The grass scratched at her ankles, and she mused that it would need to be cut before the week was out. After living in the city for so long, she loved the smell of fresh-cut grass, and as she rounded the field and took in deep lung fulls of the breeze blowing over the lake, her nerves were calmed, if ever so slightly. 

She took the long way, bypassing the fire pit area down by the lake, and dipping into the shaded woods and onto the trail that she knew very well from years of riding the horses. Rey just had to be aware of manure the horses left on the trail, leaping over piles and tree roots alike. 

This route took her past the high wire obstacle course that the camp installed a few years back, and onto the dirt road that ran alongside the range. Glancing to her left, just seeing where she had stood with Clyde just an hour before, when she was so sure that something was building between them, made her blood pump faster, and the anger returned to her mind. 

* * *

Clyde watched Rey walk away, and his throat felt so tight that he was unable to call out after her. He wanted to tell Dani that he was busy, that he wanted to sit and learn everything about the woman who was stomping up the stairs of Cabin 8. 

He knew enough about girls from his sister, that when they storm off without a word, and a door slams behind them, that he was in for some shit. Mellie Logan was the queen of the dramatic exit, and often Clyde would need to apologize with a Dr. Pepper and a bag of gummy bears. 

Knowing that he couldn’t just barge into the senior girl’s cabin, Clyde sighed and followed Dani around the pool and to the one-story cabins that housed the younger campers. The building reminded him of the duplexes in Danville, but there were three cabins on each side with girls and boys bathrooms in the middle. 

Cabin 3 was on the far end, and Dani held open the door for him but closed it after they both entered. “So, what did ya need help with?”

Dani walked up close to him, close enough that her shoulder brushed against his arm. “Since you are so tall, I just knew that you would be perfect for helping me hang up some stuff.”

The beams that spanned across the cabin already had hooks screwed into them from past summers, and as he started to thread an extension cord up the wall, Dani stood close. “So where are you from, Clyde? Your accent isn’t from Georgia.”

“Boone County, in southern West Virginia.” He answered while stepping up on a bunk to get to a hook closer to the ceiling. 

“West Virginia…” Dani mused. “What brought you down here?”

Clyde didn’t mind Dani being chatty. She was the first person who asked him about himself, but if he was being truthful, he wanted to be having this conversion with Rey. “Was headed down to Florida and had car trouble and kinda got stranded in Canon.”

“Well, lucky us.” She purred and watched as his shirt rode up to reveal pale skin and the toned dip of his lower back. Biting her lower lip, Dani leaned up against a bunk just as he was jumping down from spanning the extension cord across the entire bunk, “So, there is a campfire tonight…”

“Yeah, they mentioned something ’bout it this morning.” He bent over to plug in the cord. 

“I was wondering if you maybe wanted to go with me?” Dani asked as he turned back towards her. 

His brows pinched together, “The whole camp is going, ain’t it?”

She giggled, “It is, but I wanted you to go with me.”

He looked at Dani for a long moment while she just smiled at him. In high school, Clyde was the little brother of Jimmy Logan. He was never asked out. He was never pursued. In just one day, he had a gaggle of girls fawning over him, and now a woman who, in other situations he would be nervous about being around, was asking him to a campfire. 

As flattering as all this felt, there was only one girl he wanted to hang out with at the campfire. So he tried to stammer through this rejection, not knowing what it would feel like to turn down a beautiful woman. “I ain’t looking to start something with no one, but we can get with Hux and Gwen and go as a group.”

Dani didn’t let the rejection show on her face, just shrugged and nodded, “Sure, Clyde. That sounds great.”

He shifted on his feet for a moment and then turned, only looking back once he got to the door of the cabin. “I’ll be seein’ ya later then,” he spoke quickly and then hurried back out into the warm June afternoon. 

* * *

After dinner, the campers gathered in the field to walk down to the lake and campfire site. Rey had stayed in her Lycra running shorts, but slid a lightweight hoodie on over her tank top. She held two grocery store bags full of marshmallows as Jyn carried a few boxes of graham crackers. 

Giving a quick glance around the group, she saw Clyde standing with Hux, a tall blonde woman, and Dani. He was laughing at something Dani said, and Rey felt a rock settle in her stomach. She knew that their connection was too good to be true when she was pitted up against someone like Dani. 

She sat with her friends, roasting marshmallows and laughing at Kay’s stories and Rose’s sorry attempt at flirting with Finn. Poe sat next to her, his knee brushing up against her bare leg from time to time. She would admit that Poe was cute, his dark hair and dark eyes were enough to draw a girl in, but it was his grin and his quick wit that kept a smile on Rey’s face. 

“Rey, can I ask you something?” Poe spoke just above a whisper. 

She turned her face towards his and smiled while nodding, “Sure. What’s up?”

Poe looked around their close group and then jutted his chin towards the dock, “Maybe take a walk with me real quick.”

Looking across the campfire, Rey saw Clyde and Dani sitting together, the older woman giving Clyde a seductive look while licking melted marshmallow from her finger. Rey watched Clyde’s Adam’s apple bob and gritted her teeth. “Sure, Poe. Lead the way.”

Hux and Gwen had disappeared off into the woods over twenty minutes ago, and Clyde was left to entertain Dani. Even though he made his lack of interest known, or at least he hoped he had, he was almost positive that Dani continued to flirt with him. Being a man of nineteen, it was hard for him to not get the suggestive meaning behind the constant licking of her fingers. 

Without drawing attention to himself, Clyde glanced over at Rey, watching her having fun with some of the campers from her cabin. A boy who looked a few years younger than himself kept close to Rey, whispering jokes into her ear, and while he loved watching her smile, Clyde wished it was him.

Dani had just made another lewd attempt at offering fellatio with a flick of her tongue on a dollop of melting marshmallow when Clyde saw Rey stand from the log where her friends sat and walk off towards the lake with the dark-haired boy. 

Maybe he had misunderstood the connection that he felt with Rey. Maybe his ears were too big, or his toes turned in too much while he walked. Watching as Rey disappeared from the campfire area made his blood boil, and he snapped the stick in his hands in half, throwing it into the fire and standing up without another word to Dani. 

He walked back to camp and sat in the chair outside of his cabin, blowing smoke up into the dark sky as he tried to think about the future, especially one without Rey in it. 

* * *

The lake was calm, and a cool breeze blew over the water. A couple of campers were at the far end, making out like they were trying to swallow each other’s faces. Rey hoped that is not what Poe had in mind when asking her out here, so she gripped onto the railing of the dock and looked out over the water. 

“I need to ask you something…” Poe said while taking a position next to her. 

Rey smiled at the boy who had been a camp friend for more than four years. “Sure, anything.”

Picking at the old wood of the railing, Poe sighed. “I was wondering if you wanted to be—like an item this summer?”

Turning away from the water, Rey took in his profile, “An item?”

Poe faced her too, “Yeah, like we can go together. Be a thing…”

Rey thought back to Clyde smiling down at her, to his clumsy way with woman, and his endearing blush, but she also thought about him with Dani earlier. Poe was good looking, Kay even tried to have a fling with him last year, but he wasn’t Clyde. “Look, Poe...I like you and all, but…”

He held up his hands to stop her, “Maybe I should be a little more clear.” Poe searched her face for a quick moment, assessing if he could trust her. Finally, he sighed, and his shoulders relaxed, “I’m gay.”

Her expression read confused for a long time before she started speaking slowly, “So...if you are gay...why would you want…?

“Last year Kay helped me out a lot by going with me, but this year she is out and trying to get with Hannah.”

“You want me to be your beard?” Rey asked as it all clicked together. 

Poe nodded, “You have no idea what’s it’s like being in a cabin of twenty guys and them thinking you are just trying to get a look at their dicks.”

Rey thought for a long moment, and agreed that it would be hard for Poe to be open at camp, imagining him being threatened or beat up if he looked at a fellow camper for too long in the showers. Her thoughts wandered back to Clyde once more, but she had to shake him out of her mind. 

Looking back at Poe and seeing his desperate eyes, she smiled, “So what duties are expected of a beard?”

“Really?” Poe asked with quiet excitement. “You’ll do it?”

“Of course I will! I’m just glad that you trust me enough to ask.” She returned his million-watt smile. “Besides, it will keep me from making the mistake of engaging in a stupid summer romance.”

“Well,” Poe smirked and stepped up to her, “if it’s a romance you want…” He then dipped her backward and pretended to kiss her neck as she giggled and gripped onto his shoulders. 

He was about her height, so when he stood Rey back up, they were nose to nose, and her breathing was slightly labored from laughing. “If you were a dude, I would totally kiss you right now.”

Rey gasped in mock offense and playfully slapped at his arm, “If that is what you consider romance, then maybe you could learn a thing or two this summer.”

Joining in on the moment of laughter, Poe swept a strand of hair back from Rey’s face, and his expression went serious. “Thank you for this...I really mean it. The last thing I wanted was to be ostracized by people who claim to be my friends.”

Her smile was soft and kind. “Anything you need, all you have to do is ask.”

Poe and Rey returned to their group hand in hand, earning many looks from their friends.

Casting a glance across the fire, Rey saw that both Clyde and Dani were gone, and her heart broke ever so slightly. Poe squeezed her hand. She looked around their group, all laughing and enjoying their carefree summer. Rey reckoned that even if she were never going to be anything other than a silly kid in Clyde’s eyes—she would always have these friendships, and she would still have this last summer before real life set in.

* * *

The next morning came too quickly, and Rey and Clyde grumbled at the bell since they both tossed and turned the entire night. Rey spent the morning with Sarah and the horses, trying to stay in the stable so that she didn’t have to see Clyde walking his first class down the dirt road. 

She was focused during swim lessons, hardly saying a word to Hux as she passed out the kickboards to the less experienced swimmers. Afterward, she had a quiet lunch, where she sat with Poe to avoid comments from her friends about the new and utterly fake relationship. 

Sitting on her bunk, Rey picked at the frayed edges of her jean shorts. Jyn popped her head into the cabin. “You’re going to be late for your next class. Are you feeling alright?”

Rey couldn’t admit that she didn’t want to see Clyde again, didn’t want to see the smug and satisfied look on his face after the night he surely had with Dani. But Rey didn’t want to let Holdo or the campers down, so she stood and put on a smile. “I was just headed out that way.”

The class was already walked down the dirt road when Rey came upon them, and she took up the back of the group with some of the girls from Cabin 3 that were deep in conversation about how Clyde’s ass looked in his Wranglers. 

She stayed with the campers learning archery at the far end of the range. Rey was trying to not look at Clyde, just as much as he was trying to not look at her, but when their eyes caught, he offered an uneasy smile, showing rows of crooked teeth, and if his eyes were not those of a puppy dog, it would almost look like he was sneering. 

Rey pressed her lips together, thinking maybe the corners turned up just a little, but knew that the smile didn’t reach her eyes. Turning back to the campers, she wondered if this was his game, look all cute and awkward until he went in for the kill. Thinking that she didn’t need any more unreliable people in her life, Rey squared her shoulders, resting her hands on her hips as she waited for the bell to ring. 

Walking back towards camp with the younger group, Rey waved to the campers and bypassed the shed, headed down the trail behind the counselors’ cabin, seeing Hux making out with the tall blonde woman - but keeping on to the front office. 

Getting to the assembly area, Rey looked at the single-wide trailer that held the few offices of the admin staff. She chewed on her lower lip, not knowing if she should go in and talk to Holdo about a reassignment from Clyde’s activity. Rey wanted to be an adult about all of this, but she also didn’t know if she could let herself be a pawn in his game. 

* * *

Clyde sent the campers off back to their cabins to get ready for free hour, and he stood by the stables and stressfully ran his hands through his hair, pulling at the ends with frustration. He had no idea what changed since yesterday between himself and Rey. They seemed to be really getting along, and then Dani happened, and that dark-haired boy happened. 

Sighing, Clyde knew that he needed to fix it, so he walked over to the arts and crafts pavilion that also doubled as the camp shop and waved as he saw Jyn working the window. 

He walked into the door labeled ‘Employees Only’ and knocked on the door frame of the small room that held an assortment of foods, drinks, and other odds and ends. “Hey, Jyn. You mind if I grab a few things?”

“Sure, help yourself!” The petite brunette answered. 

Reaching into the cooler, he pulled out two Dr. Pepper’s and then swiped a bag of gummy bears. Tucking everything under his arm, he palmed his wallet out of his back pocket. “How much do I owe you?”

Jyn waved him off, “Nothing. The camp overcharges for this crap, so the counselors usually can take a few things here and there.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah,” Jyn smiled. “Enjoy your sugar rush.”

Clyde blushed up to his ears and ducked out of the room, hoping that he could easily find Rey. 

Walking back to the main camp, he was going to check Cabin 8, but he just happened to look right as he approached the counselor’s cabin and saw her up on the hill by the assembly area. 

She was pacing the area between the huge oak tree and the logs that were arranged into seating for assembly. Seeming to be talking to herself and kicking a rock back and forth, Clyde was surprised that she didn’t hear him coming. 

“It doesn’t matter…” Rey was saying to herself as she saw a shadow come across her path, and she looked up at the concerned expression of Clyde. “Oh! Sorry. Am I in your way?” She looked at the two drinks in his hand and figured that he was going to meet up with Dani somewhere. 

“No!” He blurted out, and wanted to groan when he saw her flinch at his raised voice. “I mean, no, ya not in my way. I was actually comin’ to find ya.”

“Me?”

“Yeah,” Clyde shrugged as if it was no big deal. He was trying to play it cool, but also didn’t want to seem indifferent, which he was not sure was coming across. Her body language was closed off, arms wrapped around her chest and her feet shifted like she was getting ready to bolt at any second. With another heavy sigh, he held out one of the bottles. “I got ya this.”

Rey looked down his long outstretched arm and tentatively took the soda. “Thanks…”

He rubbed the back of his neck with his empty and now cold hand, shifting his eyes around and then landing on the oak. “Can we sit for a piece?”

Following his gaze to the tree, Rey dumbly nodded and noticed that he only moved once she took a step. Sitting down with her back to the tree, and making sure that the large truck hid their position from the windows of the office, Rey twisted the cap of her Dr. Pepper and took a small sip. 

Clyde sat down in the grass in front of her, folding his legs Indian style as picked at a string on his worn camo shorts. “So, what did you want to talk to me about?” Rey finally asked. 

Reaching into this pocket, Clyde pulled out the bag of gummy bears, “These are for ya too.”

Rey took the package and set it in her lap, looking down at it with furrowed brows. How did he know that these were her favorite? Had he been watching her? “Look, it’s not that I don’t appreciate this,” she lifted her gaze to his face, “but what is this about?”

Wiping his palms on his shorts, Clyde took in a deep breath. “We seemed ta be gettin’ along just fine yesterday, but today you’s barely been able ta look at me, and I’ve been tryin’ ta figure out what I did wrong.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Rey said, while trying to convince herself that it was true. 

“Well, when Mels gives me that look,” he points at Rey, “yeah, that one right there, combined with not talkin’ to me, I know I fucked up somehow.”

He was all over the place, and Rey pinched her brows together, “Who is Mels?”

“My baby sister, and any time she’s cross with me, I go down to the Quick Stop and pick up some Dr. Peppers and gummy bears, and we work it out.”

Rey looks down at the treats in her hands, and can’t suppress the smile that pulled at the corners of her mouth. “This is your peace offering?”

“Tis, and at least a bribe to get ya ta sit long enough ta tell me how to fix this.”

Her smile fell, and she chewed on the inside of her lip for a long moment before sighing. “There isn’t anything for you to fix, Clyde. We are fine.”

Having had enough upsets with his sister, Clyde also knew that when a woman said she was ‘fine,’ she, in fact, was far from fine. His long pause was enough for her to start talking again. 

“I was just in a bad mood today. I didn’t mean to take it out on you when you have done nothing to deserve it.”

Clyde wanted to hear the truth in her words, but she was still hesitant, and wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Is this about last night?”

Rey sat back like she had been hit. “Last night?”

Now Clyde shifted uneasily and fiddled with his unopened pop bottle. “Ya went off with that boy.” He looked up through his lashes at her. “If he tried ta get fresh with ya—and ya know, it wasn’t what ya wanted, just tell me and I’ll take care of ’em.”

Her mind tried to catch up with his rambling. “You mean Poe?”

“Sure,” Clyde answered with his lips pressed together. 

Rey bit her lip and looked away from his face for a moment. She didn’t think she would be able to say what she had to while looking at him. “He didn’t do anything I didn’t agree to.”

“Oh—well—that’s good, I guess.” He said while picking at the label on his Dr. Pepper. 

She wanted to tell him that she wasn’t really with Poe, but Rey didn’t know if she could trust him, and also didn’t have the nerve to ask him about Dani, so she kept to the white lie, thinking that she could just be his friend for the next four weeks. 

“Look, I’m sorry that I acted like a bitch today.”

“You ain’t a bitch,” he quickly corrected. 

“Either way, I shouldn’t have behaved like that. I hope that we can be friends.”

His brows came together in hurt and confusion, “Friends?”

“Yeah, friends.” Rey held out her hand.

Looking down at her hand like it would bite him, Clyde wiped his palm on his shorts again before returning her gesture. Everything about her was so small, and he could wrap his long fingers all the way around her entire hand. 

He could have sworn that he heard her soft gasp, and there was no doubt that she felt the electricity as well. Their skin seemed to vibrate and blaze with just the simple touch of a handshake. But if he could only be Rey’s friend over the next four weeks, then he would only pray that it would be lasting. 

“Friends,” he agreed with a smile that showed his crooked teeth and made his cheeks crease. 

After he spoke, Rey quickly released his hand and stood, wiping the dirt from the back of her shorts. “Great,” she said too fast to be convincing. “I’m glad we could get this worked out.”

“Me too…” Clyde said, almost in a daze as to how quickly she was trying to escape the situation. 

“I guess I will see you later then,” she waved and started to walk away, leaving him sitting there under the oak tree. Forgetting her manners, she turned around while still walking backward, “Thank you for the gummy bears. I think your sister is on to something.”

Just as Rey turned around, Clyde lifted his hand to give her what he felt was a pathetic wave and mused to himself that he was so fucked. 

  
  



	5. Shenandoah River

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh goodness, y'all. This has been beta-ed since Feb 13th and I completely forgot about it. I am so sorry because this is when things heat up for Rey and Clyde!  
> I trust the amazing MyJediLife with her edits so I am posting this without another read through because I feel so bad about not getting this up!!  
> I hope y'all love this as much as I do.

**Shenandoah River**

  
  


Friends, Rey thought as she thumped her forehead against the metal railing of her bunk. She wanted to be the furthest thing from friends with Clyde, but she also had no idea how it would work. 

The thing about not knowing love from her parents or Plutt—or anyone, for her entire life, is that Rey now loved too quickly and deeply. Her friends were her family, and as she took a few calming breaths, Rey mused that the last thing she needed was heartbreak at the end of the summer. 

With a resolving sigh, Rey shuffled through her trunk and changed her cut-offs for lycra running shorts and her boots for trainers. Running was her outlet, a way to beat out her anxiety on the cracked sidewalks of their south Atlanta neighborhood. 

Rey much preferred the expansive fields and shaded trails to dodging the horrible drivers of the overcrowded southern city. She also hated running alone, so when Kelly popped into the cabin and took one look at Rey stretching out her calves, she also swapped her khaki shorts for something more breathable. 

Kelly had the build of an athlete, so when Rey told her that the loop was three miles, the younger girl was more than able to keep pace. 

The sun hung in the west, but was still high enough to kiss the tops of their cheeks and the tip of their noses. 

Clyde sat outside of his room, cigarette pressed between his lips as he watched Rey and another girl start to jog away from Cabin 8 and towards the tree line on the east side of the field. Her shorts were skin tight and came just below the cleft of her ass, and Clyde wanted to run his hands up the backs of her bare thighs and cup the flesh that he knew was firm, but would give under his grip. 

The cigarette burned down, and the cherry singed his calloused fingers just as Rey disappeared over the slight hill, and Clyde sighed, going to knock on the door of Hux’s cabin to see if the ginger was up for driving into town, since he wished to be anywhere but here. 

* * *

For the next two days, they existed around each other as ‘friends.’ A week of camp was behind them, and even if his relationship with Rey didn’t develop to anything more than friends, Clyde still wanted to put in the effort to know her.

So that Friday, after finishing up with the archery class, Clyde walked beside Rey back towards the center of the camp. Looking at the outbuilding that housed the camp store, he paused, asking her to hold on a moment. He dipped into the little room and reappeared just as quickly, two Dr. Peppers and a bag of gummy bears in hand.

“Are we fighting again?” Rey asked with pinched brows while looking at his self-proclaimed peace offering.

His answering smile was so innocent that Rey had to bite her lip to prevent herself from reaching out and touching him. “Ain’t no quarrel.”

“So no double meaning to the gummy bears?” She pointed to the bag in his hand.

“Maybe a little bit homesick,” he admitted, looking down at the familiar items in his hand. “But also, just wonderin’ if ya would wanna sit for a piece again.”

“Sure! “She answered immediately, and with a beaming smile.

Rey also sighed with relief when he guided her to the left and out into the open field. The last thing she wanted was to have Holdo witnessing her shameless flirting with a man she demanded to be just her friend.

There was a cluster of trees halfway between the camp store and the forest on the other side of the field. They settled in the shade, but the grass was still warm from the afternoon sun. Clyde handed her the bag of gummy bears while he cracked open the two bottles of soda.

Pulling at the top closure of the bag, Rey cursed under her breath. “Can you help me out? I can’t get it open.”

Rey hoped that she wasn’t completely obvious as her gaze trailed over his body. He took his bottle between his legs, the camo shorts he wore clung to his defined thighs. His fingers brushed the back of her hand as he took the candy, placing her drink in her empty palm.

She was helpless but to watch his thick fingers grab either side of the bag. His forearms flexed as he pulled the seal apart. “These give my sister trouble, too. Says she only keeps me around for one thing. “

“I can think of a couple other reasons,” Rey said under her breath, and a blush rose on her cheeks at the inability to control her mouth.

Clyde, being the gentleman that he was, and knowing that if he did what he wanted to at that moment, which was pressing her small body into the warm grass as he learned her taste—he just hoped his blush was disguised by the long hair that fell around his cheeks.

Thinking back to the advice his siblings gave him before taking Heathyr out to prom, Jimmy insisted that women love when a man talks about himself, versus Mels, who was convincing with her argument to ask the woman about herself. Clyde knew his sister’s logic would win out every time. So, he took a small swig of his soda and asked, “So, where are ya from?”

“I was born in Jacksonville, at least that’s what my papers say, but I live in southwest Atlanta.”

Clyde thought that was a strange way to answer such a question, and watched her reach into the bag set between their bent knees, popping a few candies into her mouth, perhaps in a way to avoid elaborating.

“What about you?” Rey asked, unaffected by her mouth full of gummy candy.

“Boone County, West Virginia.”

“Where’s that?”

Clyde chuckled, “You’d have to squint really hard to find it on a map, but it’s in the southwest part of the state.” He looked around the field that was dotted with other groups of campers enjoying the free hour. “There might be more people at this camp than live in all of Danville.”

They sat for another moment, each taking a sip of their Dr. Pepper before Rey popped a few more gummy bears in her mouth. “What are you doing all the way down here?”

Reclining with his arms stretched out behind him and holding his weight, Clyde sighed. “Was on the way to Florida to take in the beaches before—” he shifted his gaze over to her, but figured he had no reason to leave anything out. “Before I join up.”

“Join up?” Rey questioned, her brow furrowing against the afternoon sun. “As in the military?”

He nodded. “Army. Gotta report to Benning at the beginnin’ of August.”

Rey chewed on her lip for a moment and took a slow sip of Dr. Pepper. “Well, I think what you are doing is honorable.”

Clyde chuckled, “Goin’ to Florida, or signin’ myself over to Uncle Sam?”

“I guess both,” Rey said with a smile. “I’ve never been out of the state, so I can see how you would want to have some freedom before going and fighting for ours.”

It was either a blush or the heat of the day, but color painted Clyde’s cheeks. “Just doin’ what I think is right, even though mama wasn’t too thrilled none.”

Rey smiled and laid back in the grass, turning her face so she could look at him. “Tell me about your family.”

Clyde mirrored her position. The long oak branches dipped down around them, creating a sense of privacy. Reaching for the bag of candy between them, Clyde’s warm fingers brushed against hers as they both went for gummy bears. She giggled out an apology and allowed him to take a few in his fingertips before dropping them into his open mouth. 

“I got an older brother, Jimmy, and I’ve told you about Mels—“

“The one I have to thank for the gummy bears,” Rey smiled while shoving more past her lips. 

“She’s somethin’ else.” He said with a smile, and then went on to tell Rey everything about his mama and daddy, brother and sister. She rolled to her side and propped her head on her hand, listening intently and asking questions about Jimmy playing football and Mel’s high school. She offered condolences when Clyde told her about his daddy’s accident, and seemed to soak in mama’s wisdom. 

“What about your family?” He asked, polishing off his soda.

Rey shifted onto her back again, looking up through the oak tree and waiting until she chewed through her last helping of candy. “I don’t know…” she finally answered. 

Clyde rolled towards her, searching her face for an explanation, but only found a mix of hesitation and perhaps embarrassment. “Ya don’t have to say nutin’ if you don’t want.”

Most of the staff and some of the campers already knew Rey was on a state-funded scholarship, and she told Rose everything about Plutt’s over IM chat. Rey knew she did not owe Clyde anything, but after his honesty, she wanted him to know her. 

“I don’t have any family.”

His face relaxed, “Ah, come now. Everyone has some family.”

Rey’s lips turned down at the corners. “My parents left me in a McDonalds when I was four. I’ve been in foster care ever since.”

Clyde turned pale, reaching out on instinct and wrapping her small hand in his own. “I am so sorry, Rey.”

“No, it’s alright—“

“Folks in town call me simple—and maybe I am—runnin’ off at the mouth like that.”

Rey squeezed his hand, her body scooting closer without even thinking. “You are not simple.” Her knee grazed his, their torsos leaning in, hands still clasped as her fingers slid between his. “You couldn’t have known.”

His big brown eyes searched her face, sun-kissed by the week of camp, with freckles dusting her nose and cheeks. “They were fools to leave you behind.”

Her gaze shifted from his soulful eyes to the dotting of beauty marks, and landed on his full and pink lips. The air seemed to stop around them, the sounds of cicadas and playing kids was a distant whisper—there was only their breath—in and out, in time with the other. 

The bell at the center of camp rung out, and Rey scampered back a few inches, immediately missing Clyde’s warmth, but knowing that she couldn’t let them cross the line that she foolishly set for them. 

“I should be getting back,” Rey stammered, looking between Clyde and the rear of Cabin 9 across the field. 

And just like that—she was gone. 

Rey sat with Poe during dinner. He casually threw his arm over her shoulder and played with a stray curl that wasn’t tied up in her ponytail. From an outsider, it would look like a blissfully happy couple, but inside, Rey felt guilty—like a liar and a fraud. 

* * *

Weekends were a little different around camp. Normal activities were replaced with larger bonding experiences or cabin against cabin friendly competitions. So while Rey was running relays with the rest of Cabin 8, Clyde and Hux slipped away into town. 

Clyde took his paycheck and signed it over to Bobby. By their calculations, Clyde would be able to keep his last week’s pay to help him get to Florida and then back to Benning for basic. 

A quick stop at the drugstore allowed him to pick up another pack of cigarettes. He was down to four a day, but the more time he spent around Rey, the more he felt the need for a release—for the relaxing feeling that the first drag of a Marlboro gave him. 

“How are things with you and Dani?” Hux asked as they sat outside of a small burger joint. 

“Dani?” Clyde asked while dipping a fry into a paper cup of ketchup. 

“Yeah. Have you fucked her yet?” Hux asked with a wink. 

Clyde choke-coughed and had to take a swig from his Dr. Pepper. “‘Course not, and even if I was, I wouldn’t tell the like of ya ’bout it.”

Hux chuckled. “That girl is so wet for you. You could at least get some head out of it.”

“I’m not that kinda man.” Clyde took a large bite of his burger. 

“Every guy is that kind of man, Logan.”

“I ain’t gonna take advantage of no girl I ain’t got feelin’s for.”

Hux shoved a hand full of fries in his mouth. “You are missing out on so much tail, and I’m not just talking about the counselors,” he added with another wink. 

“Ya talkin’ ’bout campers? Ms. Holdo warned us…”

“Don’t get your panties in a wad. I’m not messing with the thirteen-year-olds or anything. Sixteen is the age of consent in Georgia, and some of those girls in Cabin 8 are fine as hell.”

Clyde’s vision went red for just a moment, thinking that perhaps Hux was talking about Rey. They did teach a class together—swimming, if he remembered correctly—which meant that everyday Rey was in a skin-tight suit with Hux’s pale eyes roaming over her golden skin. 

“Woah there, Logan, don’t look at me like that. I know Rey is your girl.”

His girl—Clyde liked the sound of that. He could make Rey his girl, he felt the attraction and knew that she felt it too, even though she was reluctant to act on it or put words to it. 

“She ain’t mine, but she is a good girl, and I’d appreciate it kindly if ya keep your tail chases away from her,” he replied through tight lips. 

They ate the rest of their meal in tense silence before Clyde excused himself for a much-needed cigarette and a moment to clear his head. The ride back to camp in Hux’s Honda Civic wasn’t much better. 

* * *

On Sunday morning, there was a short non-denominational church service. The YMCA founded the camp, so it kept with some of the spiritual values of the organization. 

Clyde stood at the back of the assembly area with his ball cap held in his hands out of respect while they allowed everyone time for silent prayer. Chewie led some of the service. He spoke about the current state of the country, and offered a small prayer for those who were getting ready to fight the war against terror. 

Rey turned back to look at Clyde, and an expression of worry and pride graced her brow and lips. She knew he was joining up, knew he would be sent to God knows where to do God knows what. But she understood duty and loyalty, and saw something bigger than herself. She didn’t tell him he was stupid, or tell him he had a death wish. She was proud of him, and that made his heart swell. 

The rest of the morning was spent cleaning the cabins and getting laundry together. Each camper had a mesh laundry bag that was labeled with their name and everything would be washed, dried, and delivered back to the cabin by the end of the day. 

There was an hour of free time before lunch, and then the pool would open until dinner. Rey figured that it would be good to get in a quick run, and then cool off with a swim after lunch. 

As she walked back from the laundry room, having to pass the counselor’s cabins, Clyde stuck his head out of his room and asked, “What ya up to today?”

Turning to face him, Rey couldn’t help the smile on her face. “Planning to go for a run.”

He bit his lip, “Mind if I join?”

Cocking her hip, Rey giggled. “Didn’t take you for the running type.”

His expression turned a little somber, but he still had a playful light in his deep brown eyes. “I’m ’bout to spend ten weeks of my life runnin’ ‘til I puke. I got ta get in shape somehow.”

Rey looked him up and down, as if appraising a prize thoroughbred. “We better get to work—because you have a long way to go.”

Clyde gave a full belly laugh. “I place myself willingly in yer care, ma’am,” he snarked. 

“Meet me by the stairs,” she glanced over her shoulder at Cabin 8, “in five minutes—and be ready to have your ass handed to you.”

“Lookin’ forward to it.”

She was in those little running shorts again, and he hoped that Little Clyde would be on his best behavior. His sports shorts would be useless at hiding his affection for the smiling girl. 

“Take a few to limber up,” Rey instructed as she started to stretch out her calves. 

He didn’t have the heart to tell her that up until recently, he had been running five miles a day in preparation for boot camp. He also lost the ability to speak when she bent over to stretch her hamstrings, and her shorts rode up on her pert ass. 

Rey looked over at him and smirked. “My eyes are up here, Clyde.” She was still bent over, but pointed to her face. 

Clyde felt his cheeks heat, but in teasing defiance, he slowly shifted his eyes from her upturned lips to her playful hazel eyes, and then blatantly checked out her ass once more, letting his gaze skim down her toned legs and back up. Finally, when he looked back at her face, her cheeks were flushed, and her mouth hung slightly open. “And what a pretty face it is…” he said almost drunkenly. 

His eyes were dark, and as his gaze roamed over her body, she felt as if it was his warm and thick fingers—but wished it was his tongue. 

Her heart was racing, and they had not even started the three-mile circuit. Clyde wanted to be more than friends, and the wetness between her legs was an indication that he could have her right here, and she would beg for more. 

Swallowing down the lump in her throat, Rey stood up and wiped her sweaty palms on her tank top. “We should get going,” she said weakly, not trusting her voice to not ask for his fingers or tongue. 

Clyde remembered himself and ran his fingers through his hair nervously, while trying to look anywhere but at the tight shorts outlining Rey’s core, and he was not wondering if she was wet right now, he was not thinking about kissing her senseless. 

With a deep inhale, he started to think this was a terrible idea. Before he could reconsider, Rey was starting to trot towards the tree line on the east side of the field and was calling over her shoulder for him to hurry up. 

He kept pace with her, which wasn’t a struggle with his long legs, but he knew that if he ran behind her, he would only be focused on the firm bounce of her ass in those fucking shorts. His mama and daddy brought him up to not objectify women, but when Rey was around, it seemed the majority of his manners went out the window. 

Looking over at him, Clyde seemed to keep a steady rhythm of breathing, and Rey felt that perhaps he was more prepared for boot camp that he was putting on. “I would think you would have more trouble, being a smoker and all.”

“I’ve been cuttin’ back.”

Rey nodded, even though he wasn’t looking at her. “I’m sure Dani is appreciative.”

This made him whip his head to the side, “Why would Dani care?”

She shrugged and attempted to seem indifferent. “Aren’t the two of you, like, a thing?”

“A thing?”

“Yeah,” she sighed, “you know—hooking up or whatever.”

Clyde’s steps faltered on the uneven ground as he held his gaze on Rey. “Dani and I are not a thing, or hookin’ up, or anythin’.”

Rey chewed on her lip, “But you went off with her after the campfire…”

“No. She went to smoke with Hux and Gwen, and I headed back to my cabin because you went off with that dark-haired boy.” His tone came off a little more defensive than he would have preferred to as ‘just friends’ talking.

“Poe?” 

“You seem to have a thing with him.”

Rey was going to break the skin on her lip if she didn’t give the chewing a rest. “Poe and I are just friends.”

There it was again. This ‘just friends’ relationship status that she seemed to use with broad strokes. He had seen them walking around holding hands and sitting extra close during meals. He saw Poe kiss her cheek a few times outside the cabins, and Rey was undoubtedly not offering the same ‘just friends’ liberties to Clyde. 

He rose a brow and gave her a skeptical look. “You seem to be ‘just friends’ with a lot of people.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” 

Shit, she looked mad. “Fuck—I dunno. Don’t mind me none. ‘M just bein’ stupid.”

She remembered when Clyde told her that most of his hometown thought he was simple, and she wasn’t going to let him degrade himself like that. “Poe is gay,” she admitted. “He asked me to pretend like we were dating so that the other guys in the cabin wouldn’t give him shit.”

“Oh…”

“But you can’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t…” his voice was far off as he tried to process. “But aren’t you scared about being so open with dating a camper?”

Her brows pinched. “There aren’t any rules against it.”

“Counselors can’t have relations with campers. Holdo was very clear about that.”

Rey came to an abrupt haul. “I’m only a counselor in training, Clyde. I’m only seventeen.”

He had stopped when she did, and attempted to catch his breath as he walked back towards her with his hands on his hips and a perplexed look on his face. “Seventeen?”

“Yeah, that is why I thought it best if we were just friends. I didn’t want you to get in trouble for being with a minor and have it screw up your enlistment.”

They had just passed the campfire site, and were entering the wooded trail, so the trees gave them a little more privacy for their conversation. He processed everything she said, her age, her knowing that he could get in trouble with the law if they were found out, and her concern for his military career. She was being logical—but his racing heart and his mind were telling him that he didn’t care about any of that—they were telling him to be irrational. 

He wasn’t saying anything, but Rey could see the gears turning in his head, and he seemed very focused on pushing the sweat-damp hair out of his eyes. Needing to do something, Rey pulled the extra hair tie off her wrist and offered it to him. 

Clyde looked at the purple elastic like it was going to bite him. He grew his hair out in high school to hide his ears, and the one thing he was least looking forward to in the military was them shaving off years worth of growth. With a sigh, he took the band and tied the top half of his hair up at the back of his head while he tried to think about what to do next. 

Rey watched him intently and then gave a soft giggle. 

“Don’t start,” he warned, only half playfully.

“I think they are cute.” She said, and reached up to run the tip of her finger along the shell of his pronounced ear. 

“You do?” He asked dumbly, not able to think or breathe while she was touching him.

“Yeah,” she smiled and gave a teasing pull to the lobe. “I like them—” she bit her lip. “There isn’t much that I don’t like about you.” Now that everything was out in the open, she didn’t see a point in lying about her attraction to him. 

Clyde felt like he was spinning, and unknowingly moved closer to her. “I like everything about you, too.”

The noises of the forest dropped out around them, and it was just their locked eyes and heaving chests. “Rey,” he whispered, and reached up to cup her face. 

He was so close that she could smell his cologne, something rich like chocolate, and it filled all of her senses. 

But then she remembered. She thought about ruining his life for something as selfish as a summer crush and pulled away from him. Not knowing what else to do, she turned and spirited away from him further into the wooded trail. 

“Rey! Stop!” Clyde called out to her, his legs pumping to catch up. 

Rey’s lungs burned with each humid breath. Her eyes stung with tears she was trying to hold at bay. His voice rang out behind her, but she couldn’t stop. If she stopped, then she would have to face the reality that she was willing to risk his future for a chance to feel something real. 

He could almost reach her, and he continued to plead with her to not run away—to just talk to him. Clyde saw it happening in slow motion, her toe caught on a tree root, and he grabbed her, spinning her into his chest and wrapping his arms around her back as they collided with an oak tree. 

Her breath came in shallow gasps. Maybe because of having the wind knocked out of her by the impact, or perhaps the proximity of his body. When she looked up at the concerned look in his eyes, the tears finally came. “We can’t do this, Clyde.”

“Do what?” He asked, needing to hear her say it, needing to know that she felt it too, and was trying to deny it.

With hesitation, Rey reached her hand out, laying her palm against his chest. Looking to where they were connected, she could easily push him away—or pull him in. The plans for his future ran through her head, and she let another tear slide loose. “I won’t ruin you,” she voiced her prior thought. 

Pulling his arms from around her and rubbing his hands along her upper arms, he met her watery gaze. “The only thing that could ruin me is if you pull away from me again.”

“Clyde,” she cried. “You are about to join the Army, the last thing you need is a summer fling with a seventeen-year-old. You could lose your job and never make it to Florida to see the sunrise and—” she sniffled, “I can’t be responsible for fucking any of that up for you.”

The reminder of her age still stung, but all he could think about was her lips—her pink and perfectly pouty lips. Clyde had to focus. Rey was right, him getting mixed up with a minor, even over the age of consent, could spell trouble for his military career before it even started. 

He also remembered Holdo’s words of warning that any counselor found having a relationship with a camper would be fired, and the authorities would be called if warranted. Clyde had so much on the line—but he also had Rey right here.

They were staring at each other, eyes roaming over the other’s face. Rey tried not to drown in his deep brown eyes, tried to memorize each beauty mark, wanted to know what his nose felt like pressed into the pulse point of her neck. Finally, she landed on his lips, deep red with just a drop of moisture, making her want to know the taste of him. 

Clyde’s hands were so large that his thumbs brushed over her collarbones and the base of her neck as he pinpointed each gold fleck of her hazel eyes. Her constellations of freckles across her nose reminded him of West Virginia nights out by the creek, and her skin was as soft as lamb’s wool. 

Moving to cup her cheeks, he swiped at her tear stains with the pads of his thumbs as two futures raced through his mind, one without the breathtaking girl before him, and one with her laughs and smile and light acting as a beacon to bring him home from whatever hell awaited him.

“Fuck it,” he whispered between them and then surged forward, slotting his lips over hers in a needy kiss. 

Rey responded by humming against his lips, feeling the tickle of his facial hair, and snaking her hand up his chest to grip the back of his neck. Twisting her fingers in the dark hair at his nape, she pulled him in closer, needing the heat of his body flush up against her, not caring that the bark of the tree bit into her shoulder blades. 

Wanting to be touched everywhere, Rey rolled her hips into his and smirked into the kiss when he groaned. His hands skimmed over her shoulders and then wrapped around her ribs. Rey squeaked in surprise when he effortlessly lifted her, and her legs locked around his hips. 

She felt something hard press at her core, and she wiggled until what she dearly hoped was his sizable cock was slotted between her folds. He was kissing down her neck and rocked his hips into her, the noise that escaped her throat may have sounded like a wounded animal out in the woods. 

“I don’t want just a summer fling with ya,” he grunted against her shoulder as he rocked forward again. She pulled at his hair once more and shifted her hips to get pressure right where she needed it. 

Bringing his face up so that he could watch her the next time he drew a moan from her lips, Clyde gripped at the back of her thighs and rear, her tight running shorts doing nothing to hide the supple curves of her body. As he pressed his body into hers, he also pulled her into him, and Rey let out a whimper that would crush his soul if he was not the one doing this to her. 

“I want this,” he rolled his hips, and she pulled him in tighter with her legs. “I want ya,” he swallowed her moans—that only grew in volume. “I want everythin’, s’ long as it’s with you.”

Rey gasped and clenched around nothing, a primal part of her wanted to push down his running shorts and get him inside of her as quickly as possible. But he stilled above her, his breaths coming in short puffs as he traced her orgasm flushed cheeks with the pad of his thumb. 

She giggled with bliss, and he kissed her swollen lips. When they parted from another kiss, she ran her fingertips over the stubble on his jaw and pressed her forehead to his. “I want everything too.”

Clyde kissed her again, deep and slow like the Shenandoah River. Pressing in close to her once more, Rey moaned, and then her hand wandered down between them. He caught her wrist, “Rey…”

“Did you…” her question hung in the air between them. 

“No, but don’t worry ’bout me, darlin’.”

Biting her lip, Rey looked down and saw his thick cock head straining against the smooth fabric of his shorts. “Doesn’t it hurt if you don’t?”

Rey tightened her legs around his hips, pulling him in again and rolling her core against him for good measure. 

“The last thing we need is me walking into camp with a mess in my shorts.”

Taking his hand that was still holding her wrist, Rey ran the tip of his long finger along her lips, “I could clean you up.”

Clyde groaned, “The first time I’m in that pretty mouth, it won’t be next to a pile of horse shit.”

Looking around them, Rey took in their surroundings and giggled as she saw the paddies left on the trail. “Fair enough,” she continued to chuckle as she kissed his lips. “But promise that you will let me take care of you—and soon.”

Pushing against her core once more, he returned her laughter, “I wouldn’t be a gentleman if I’d refused such a keen proposal.”

  
  
  



	6. Almost Heaven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much MyJediLife for the amazing beta and also helping bring my Clyde-isms to life. 
> 
> This chapter is just porn...this story will be fluff and porn from this point on. Strap in. 😉

**Almost Heaven**

Clyde asked Rey to head back into camp first—because he still needed a moment to calm himself down before walking back to his cabin. As he leaned up against a tree just inside the forest line, he blew out a deep breath and tried to focus on what just happened and what it meant. 

He knew what they were doing was not illegal, per se, but he also wasn’t willing to push his luck just a few months out from boot camp. Rey said that she didn’t want to ruin his life, she didn’t want to mess up his future, and he respected her for that, but he also couldn’t keep the goofy smile off his face when thinking about her soft lips and the way she sounded when she came. 

Rey seemed like the kind of girl that wouldn’t screw him over at the end of the summer, or brag to her friends about hooking up with a counselor. Clyde felt that Rey had just as much riding on saving face with the camp, since she was counting on a job next year. 

With the situation in his pants under control, Clyde walked back to his cabin, grabbed his toiletries, and helped himself to a cold shower before dinner. 

* * *

“Dang girl, you must have gotten a real workout,” Poe whistled from the side of the senior boy’s cabin as he saw Rey trotting across the field.

Her face flushed, and she looked around to make sure no one saw the type of workout she just had with Clyde in the woods. Rey then remembered that she was supposed to be on a run when Clyde decided to thankfully cross the line she so stubbornly set for them, and with the wetness in her shorts, she was eternally grateful that he did. 

“Yeah…” she nervously chuckled and wiped some of the sweat from her forehead. “I think I’m going to try and wash up before the dinner bell.”

Poe reached out and grabbed Rey’s upper arm and pulled her in closer to him. Her face pinched with anger before she remembered that they were fake dating, but Poe could sense that she still felt a little uncomfortable being this close to him. “Can I ask you a favor?”

Her face softened at his puppy dog expression. “Anything, Poe.”

He beamed. “Can you sneak out tonight? Give me an alibi?”

Rey’s mind raced, but then she returned his excited smile. “Absolutely. I have some reading I can do, and I’ll hide in the bathroom for—about an hour?”

“Better make it an hour and a half.” Poe winked and then kissed her cheek before commenting about how she stunk and suggested a shower. 

As she grabbed her shower caddy from the cabin and walked towards the bathrooms, she glanced at Clyde’s cabin and couldn’t suppress the smirk on her lips. 

Clyde sat with Hux and Dani during dinner, and it seemed that every few seconds, Rey found his eyes across the lodge dining hall. His hair was wet, much like hers, and she felt a small pang of sadness that he wouldn’t let her help him finish. She pictured him in a cold shower cursing his blue balls, and as the image of him naked burned into her mind, Rey was never more resolute about her plan. 

She made conversation during dinner, but she was also distant. As they walked back to the cabin, Rey linked arms with Rose. “Can you cover for me tonight?”

Rose snapped her head to the side to look at her friend, “You sneaking out to see Poe?”

Rey bit her lip and hated that she was lying to her friend, but she had two others to protect. “Yeah. He asked me to meet him up by the lodge after lights out.”

It was no secret that Rey wasn’t a virgin, they had talked about it on IM chat after it happened, but Rose also knew that Rey didn’t date anyone else after Jacen. “You sure about this?”

Rey turned to face her friend, stopping their trek at the bottom of the cabin stairs. Her eyebrows pinched together, “What do you mean?”

Rose pulled them a little further away for privacy. “I know it has been a while since Jacen, and I don’t think screwing behind the lodge is your ideal hookup.”

Rey was thankful for her friend, and she grabbed Rose’s hand and squeezed it. “I’m not going to sleep with Poe tonight.” At least that part of her statement was true. “He’s a good guy, and if we take it there, then I will have thought about it enough to know that it is just a summer fling.”

“Okay,” Rose conceded. “You’re right. Poe is a good guy. I just want to make sure you are being safe.”

“Always,” Rey replied, and then pulled her friend into a tight hug. 

Rey didn’t deserve a friend like Rose, and Rose didn’t deserve to be lied to, but Rey hoped that one day when they could openly talk about Clyde that her friend would understand. As they walked up the stairs, the only part of the plan she wasn’t sure of was who Poe was meeting up with that night. 

* * *

At night, in the country, the sounds of helicopters and sirens were replaced with crickets and nightingales. The center of camp was lit with only a few lamps by the pool, and the bathrooms up at the lodge. She would wait long enough for any campers making last-minute bathroom runs to be soundly back in their bunks.

Rey just hoped that Clyde would still be up and willing to open his door. 

Jyn’s clock across the cabin illuminated six after ten, and Rey slid out of bed. She was in cotton sleep shorts and a tank top, and shoved her feet into her bathroom flip-flops. Nudging Rose on the top bunk, she made a gesture to the door, letting Rose know that she was headed out. Rose gave a thumbs up and then rolled back over. 

The spring on the screen door was oiled at the start of summer, so the constant humidity had not built back up the usual rust. It swung open with just the smallest of squeaks that could be blamed on a mouse. 

She closed the door just as quietly behind her and then tip-toed down the wooden stairs. Staying on her toes, Rey avoided the dreaded ‘flip-flop’ sounds as she crossed the small patch of grass to the concrete pad that connected the counselor cabins to the pool deck. 

His window was dark, his red camping chair was outside of the room, and she saw ash around the rim of a Coke can. She would have to talk to him about the smoking, but at that moment, she just hoped that he let her in. 

Looking around, Rey confirmed that no one else was about, and she exhaled some of her nerves before she lifted her hand and lightly knocked on his door. 

From inside, she heard the springs of his bed shift, and had to suppress a giggle when his deep voice mumbled out a curse at Hux. He was still muttering when the door opened, and his sleepy eyes went wide. The next moment, Rey was quickly being pulled into his room.

She had a few seconds to adjust to the darkness while she watched Clyde stick his head out of the room and look left, then right before closing the door. The room was utterly dark, and in the silence, she could hear his slightly labored breath.

“Shit,” he cursed again and stumbled over to a light on the bedside table. In his half-awake state, he stubbed his toe on his guitar case, so when the room was cast in a soft yellow glow, he heard Rey’s soft giggle. 

The mountain of a man was attempting to balance on one foot, with his other cradled in his left hand. He was shirtless and only clad in gray boxer briefs. Rey couldn’t help but bite at the corner of her lip and take in the expanses of his pale skin. 

Finally, he stood back on two feet and whispered, “What are ya doin’ here?”

Rey’s focus was on his chest as he stood up straight, and she got a good view of his modest but defined muscles. She could tell that his body was not honed by hours in the gym, but by hard labor to help support his family. That aspect of Clyde made him even sexier in Rey’s eyes. 

She remembered that he asked her a question, and dumbly she answered, “Beard duty…”

He scratched at his face for a moment and felt the patches of facial hair. “I don’t understand, darlin’.” 

“Sorry,” she laughed and stepped in closer to him. “Poe was meeting up with someone tonight, and since I am supposed to be his girlfriend, he asked me to sneak out for an hour or so as his cover.”

“So ya only here cause of Poe?” His expression was somber. 

Seeing that Clyde was a little dejected, Rey reached out and laid her hands on his warm chest. “No! I’m here for you.” Her hands trailed up to play at his collarbone. “I was hoping that we could continue what we started earlier.”

A sly smile crept onto his lips, and he placed his hands at her hips, pulling her towards him but still leaving a few teasing inches between them. “What parts were you hopin’ for?”

“Well, maybe a little more of this…” Rey rolled up on her tops and pressed her lips to his. When his tongue swiped along the seam of her mouth, Rey opened and softly moaned. He tasted like mint and slightly of sleep, but she could smell the hanging of nicotine on his mustache. 

“We got to be quiet, darlin’. These walls are thin as paper.”

Rey nodded and pressed her hands into his firm abdomen and started to push him backward. The mattress protested as he fell back, and he bounced a few times in a seated position. “You’ll just have to occupy my mouth to keep me quiet.”

Clyde’s hands came back up to her waist as Rey slid into his lap. She was straddling his hips, and as their mouths came back together, her hands were buried in his hair and pulling him in closer. 

Just like in the woods earlier that day, Rey felt him harden under her core, and she pressed herself into his lap. Her heart was racing as Clyde started kissing along her jaw, and his hands ventured up with his thumbs pressing into the bottom of her rib cage. 

He couldn’t believe that she was here, that she was warm under his hands and tasting so sweet on his tongue. A deep moan sounded in her throat when he sucked at the spot just behind her ear, and he lightly squeezed her ribs and quietly shushed her, the vibrations on her sensitive skin sent a shiver down her body and caused goose bumps to cover her arms. 

Rey rolled her hips and pressed her chest forward as he continued to kiss her neck. “You can touch my boobs,” she whimpered when he wasn’t moving his hands. 

Clyde felt frozen, not knowing how far he was ready to go with Rey, but he also knew that he would give her anything. When he didn’t move fast enough, Rey released him and gripped the hem of her shirt before whipping it off her torso. 

He was motionless for an entirely different reason as he let his gaze drift down to Rey’s chest. Her tan lines accentuated her modest breasts, and Clyde felt an immediate need to put them in his mouth—so he did. 

Her skin smelled like floral body wash, and she moaned with both frustration when he lifted her off his lap and she could no longer get the friction on her core, but also with pleasure when he captured one of her nipples with his lips. 

“Clyde,” Rey whimpered, and then one of his hands came up to cover her mouth, and she took two of his fingers into her mouth. When Rey was sure that he was content to suck at her chest, she snaked a hand down between them and quickly passed the elastic of his boxers and wrapped her fingers around his ready cock. 

“Fuck—” he hissed when Rey’s hot little hand squeezed around his cock head and gave a slight pull up. 

“Shh,” Rey teased, and silenced him with her lips. 

Rey was back sitting in his lap, and when she stroked his cock, the knuckle of her thumb brushed against her clit, and she wanted nothing more than to feel him. “Do you have anything?” She breathed between needy kisses. 

“Anythin’?” He asked, his mind in a daze. 

“Do you have a condom?” Rey kept her hand around him, but stopped her movement so that they could both think for a moment.

Clyde’s posture deflated. “I don’t. Never thought I would need ‘em. Never thought ya would want to.”

Rey bit her lip. She had to put off getting her birth control shot due to attending camp, but also didn’t think that she would need it. 

Her silence must have given off the wrong impression, and Clyde started to pull her hand from within his shorts. “It’s okay if we don’t—”

“I want to,” Rey said, and kept a firm—but not painful—grip on him. “But not without a condom. Can you pick some up the next time you go into town?”

He blinked a few times. His previous relationship was fleeting and only lasted a few weeks. It was enough time for him to experiment sexually, and porn filled in the rest of the blanks, but he was amazed that the beautiful creature in his lap wanted him and was willing to wait to do it right. 

“And by the next time you go into town, I mean, can you go tomorrow?” Rey said with a cheeky grin. 

Clyde chuckled lowly in the back of his throat. “Who knew there was a minx livin’ in that sweet little hide of yours.” He pulled on her arm again as a way of saying that it was fine if they didn’t do anything that night, but she was unrelenting. 

“Just cause we don’t have a condom doesn’t mean we can’t do other things.”

“Other things…” He was playing coy, not wanting to push her too far—even though she had just insinuated that if he had a condom, they would be fucking by now. 

Rey reached out and took one of his hands, turning it palm up and sliding it between her legs. She knew that her sleep shorts were soaked through, and he would be able to feel what he does to her. 

“Shit, sweetheart. Yer so wet.”

“Mmmhum,” she nodded her head and rolled her core into his hand. 

When Rey started to stroke him again, he shivered and squeezed her wrist. “Let me take care of ya first, cause if you keep that up, it won’t be long.”

Rey finally conceded and released his cock, skimming the pad of her thumb up over his slit, and when she pulled her hand from within his shorts, she brought her finger up to her mouth and licked up the bead of pre-cum. Clyde palmed her core harder and crashed his lips to hers, pushing in his tongue in search of his taste. 

He cursed her tiny shorts, but also knew that if she was completely naked that they were more likely to be reckless, so he gripped her thigh and pushed his thumb under the hem of the shorts. He gave a small prayer that the shorts had some stretch to them and for—fucking holy hell—she was not wearing any panties. 

Clyde’s thumb slid through her folds easily with how slick she was. As he neared the top of her slit, her whole body quaked, and he suspected that he found her clit. Sliding back down to where he felt a little bump in her wet skin, he circled with his thumb, not giving too much pressure, allowing Rey to press into him if she wanted more. 

She was moaning again, and so he kissed her and swallowed each one. Her forehead was pressed to his as she looked down to where half his hand disappeared into her shorts. “I want your finger in me,” she panted out. 

He spread his thighs apart further, opening her more and giving himself enough room to position his hand just below her core. She was kissing him again as his middle finger gathered moisture and swirled in her folds, looking for her entrance. 

Finally, he found where there was some give, and he rocked his hand up so that his finger slid within her up to the first knuckle. Rey sighed into their kiss like she was granted relief. 

Rey couldn’t deny that she wished she was sliding down on something else hard and long, but his thick finger felt like almost heaven as she bared down on his hand. 

“Whoa there, darlin’,” Clyde purred into the side of her neck where he had been kissing. Her core was tight around his finger, and he was worried about hurting her if she took him in too quickly. “Ya sure ya done this before?”

“I’m not a virgin, Clyde. It’s just been a while. Now I need you to stop being a gentleman and put another one of those big fingers in me.”

Clyde was left speechless. He was not used to a woman asking for what she needed sexually. When he didn’t move, Rey tilted her head back up and looked him in the eyes. “I need more—I want more of you. You’re not going to hurt me, and by the size of you, if I can’t take two of your fingers, then sex will be impossible.”

Being a young man and having a woman not only make a favorable reference to the size of his cock, but also asking him for more, Clyde was helpless but to smirk as he slid his finger out of her only enough to allow his ring finger to join on the next thrust. 

Rey’s breath hitched at the delicious stretch of his fingers. Losing her virginity to Jacen had been moderately painful, but with two of Clyde’s fingers deep within her, Rey only felt unbidden pleasure.

Everything about this man set Rey’s body alight. From the deep drawl as he whispered his amazement at how good she felt around his fingers, to the way that his large hand dwarfed—but also worshiped—her breasts. She was almost keen not to believe he’d only been with one girl before her.

Her insides felt stretched tight, and her core throbbed with need. “Clyde, I need to come. Please make me come.”

Her soft begging stoked the fire within him, and Clyde set a punishing pace of thrusting his fingers up within her. He also curled his fingers to pull down on the spongy tissue at the front of her core, working at the spot he learned about in an instructional video about how to make a woman squirt.

Rey moved over him, fucking herself with his hand. She had only experienced an orgasm during sex once before, and Jason wasn’t one for much foreplay, so this utterly blinding sensation that she was rushing towards was completely new.

“Shit—shit—” Rey chanted as she felt the steady build.

“Shush darlin’,” Clyde strained to whisper while he moved his free hand from her breast up to her mouth, letting out a groan when she greedily took his thumb in between her lips and bit down to silence herself.

Clyde wished he didn’t have to stifle her. He wanted to hear her scream his name and call out her pleasure to the chilled West Virginia air and God Almighty.

His mind drifted to an image of Rey riding his lap in the back of his pickup down by the swimming hole, with nothing but the stars as witness to their lovemaking. At that moment, he realized he wanted that future, but even more, he wanted this beautiful girl to fall apart by only the workings of his hand.

His fingers slammed up into her, making noises that he previously thought were exaggerated in pornos, but his girl was dripping for him. “All right, darlin’,” he cooed as he nuzzled into her temple. “Ya can come, I want to feel ya come, Rey.”

Her brows were pinched together, and her eyes were pleading. Clyde dragged his thumb up her folds, and applied pressure to her clit. That is what his girl needed, and it sent her careening over the edge.

As she came, Rey bit down on his finger, and even though it hurt like hell, he pulled his thumb from between her teeth and crashed his lips to hers, feeling her moans of climax rattle in his bones.

Her body shook in his lap, and he had to grip Rey tightly to prevent her from falling to the floor. She soaked his hand as he leisurely continued to stroke her g-spot. Her muscles jumped every time he tapped the spot at the front of her core. Finally Rey had to push his hand away, whimpering but also wincing as his thick fingers withdrew from within her. She was sure to be sore days from now, but knew that with each memory of what this amazing man could do to her, she would be clenching around nothing at how good he felt inside her.

“You are so beautiful,” he said while pushing hairs back away from her face with the hand that was not coated in her essence.

Rey answered with a breathy chuckle, too blissed out to argue with his compliment. “That was amazing. You are really good at that.”

“I would gladly do it every day if it meant watchin’ ya come like that, and then bein’ able ta hold ya after.”

“Careful what you wish for, Clyde. I might hold you to it,” Rey answered with some snark in her tone. Feeling like her heart rate was returning to normal, she slid her hand down Clyde’s body and into his shorts again. He was still hard, but what nineteen-year-old boy wouldn’t be after fingering his—girlfriend—to climax?

“Oh, sweetheart. Ya don’t have ta.” He wrapped his hand around hers and tried to stop her upward pull. 

“But I want to,” Rey replied. “You got me off twice already, and I want to make you feel good, Clyde.” She moved one leg at a time over his knees and knelt between his spread thighs. 

“What ya doin’—” he started, but could only groan when her hot tongue licked him from base to tip. 

“Making you feel good…” Rey answered coyly and then licked up his slit, taking the dribbles of pre-cum with her. 

He couldn’t believe what was happening. This was the first time a girl had taken him in her mouth, and it felt so fucking good! Rey’s tits brushed against his thighs, and he wanted to strip off his boxers, but also didn’t want to assume what she wanted. Rey shifted between his legs, and he cursed to himself before grabbing the pillow from the top of his bed and handing it to her. 

Rey came away from his cock and gave him a confused look. “For yer knees,” he said between panting breaths. 

“Always the gentleman,” Rey smirked while pushing the pillow under her knees. She had to admit that the concrete floor was not comfortable, and she fell a little more for the kind man who was trying so hard not to thrust up into her mouth. 

She wanted to see all of him, so Rey grabbed the waist of his boxers and pulled, mumbling a soft, ‘up’ as she licked at the base of his cock again. Clyde lifted his hips and had to pinch her between his knees to allow the material to be shifted down his legs. He was completely naked, and Rey took in his muscular thighs, his prominent cock, heavy sack, heaving chest, and an anxious expression on his face. 

“You are fucking gorgeous,” she whispered, almost in awe of him as her fingers trailed back up his thighs to cup his sack with her left hand and wrap her right around the base of his cock. 

“I can’t believe—” he started to speak again, but was cut off by watching his cock head disappear into her mouth and her kiss bruised lips stretched around his shaft. He threaded the fingers of his left hand into her hair when it fell across her face as her head bobbed in his lap. His right hand was still coated in her essence, and he resisted the urge to put his fingers in his mouth. 

Instead, Clyde reached down and palmed one of her breasts. His wet fingers toyed with her nipples, and as her own slick dried in the humid summer air, her dusky peaks pebbled and she hummed around his cock. 

The vibration at the back of her throat made him bow his body around her head, and his hand in her hair gripped and pushed down. Rey made a gagging noise and squeezed his thigh, which caused Clyde to remember himself and release her. 

Rey came off his cock with watery eyes and a string of saliva trailing from her rosy lips to his swollen cock head. “I’m so sorry—” he started to apologize.

“Did that feel good?” Rey asked, cutting him off. 

His mind was again rendered useless, and his other head took over the conversation. “Fuck, darlin’. That felt amazing.”

“Good,” Rey said, and proceeded to take him as far back in her throat as she could, making the same gagging sound when she tried to swallow him down farther. 

“Jesus Christ!” Clyde almost yelled as her throat worked around him, and she hummed with satisfaction. His mother would have his skin for taking the Lord’s name in vain, but he was almost positive that his Savior never felt anything as incredible as Clyde was feeling at that moment. 

“If ya keep doin’ that, I’m not gonna be able to hold on much longer.” He was panting out his words between ragged breaths, and it seemed that his warning only made Rey more enthusiastic as her right hand followed her mouth up and down his shaft, and her left hand caressed his sack. 

He didn’t want to think about the reason that Rey knew how to do this so well, perhaps he shouldn’t believe that she had only been with one person before him, but he was thankful as fuck that she wanted to do it with him. 

True to his word, Clyde felt his balls draw up and a warm sensation in his groin as he let out a deep groan. “Rey, I’m gonna—”

He meant it as a cue for her to remove her mouth and maybe jerk him off, he could always clean up with his boxers or the tee-shirt on his bedside table. But instead, she pumped harder and took him in deeper. When she hummed one more time, Clyde finally let go and came—hard—down the back of her throat. 

Rey coughed a little, not expecting the amount of spend he deposited in her mouth, but she figured, big man—big load. His taste was salty but not unpleasant, and two swallows later, she only had hints of him on her tongue. 

As she moved her mouth back up his shaft, cleaning him up as she went, Rey looked up at Clyde and saw the utter shock and amazement on his face. She smiled and wiped at her mouth for his benefit. “Was that okay?”

“Pardon my language for a moment, ma’am, but I really wish I had a condom because I would fuck ya until ya could no longer scream my name.”

Now Clyde wore a smirk, because Rey was rendered speechless and utterly turned on. 

  
  
  



	7. Stranger to Blue Water

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to MyJediLife for the beta and making sure my Clyde is so soft. I’m not going to say that I like writing Clyde more than Ben...but you might be seeing more ReyLogan from me in the future. 😍

**Stranger to Blue Water**

He pulled Rey off the floor and back into his lap and kissed her deeply. Her tongue tasted of his spend, and reaffirmed what she’d just done to him. Rolling to the side, Clyde gathered Rey onto his bed, and their legs tangled as he stroked her bare chest and continued to devour her mouth.

It was blissful until she caught sight of the alarm clock teetering on the window ledge on the backside of the small room. “Oh, shit. I’ve got to go.”

“Do ya, really?” Clyde asked while nuzzling against her chest. 

Rey ran her fingers through his hair and hummed as he nipped at her breasts. “I’ve been gone too long already, and we can’t get caught.”

His answering huff against her skin made Rey giggle, and she had to press her face into the top of his head to muffle just how happy he made her. When she pushed at his shoulders, Clyde loosened his arms from around her back and let her slide away. “Fine…” he pouted playfully at the loss of her warmth. 

She gave him a skeptical look while collecting her shirt from the floor and slipping it back over her head, and picked up her shoes, knowing they would make too much noise wearing them back to the cabin. Rey dipped down and kissed him, where he still lay tangled in the scratchy camp issue sheets. “Get us some condoms, and I’ll make sure we have longer next time.”

“Yes ma’am,” he drawled, and kissed her once more with a slight pull on her shirt. 

Rey laughed against his lips and pushed away. “Goodnight, Clyde.”

“Goodnight, sweetheart.”

Peaking out of the room, Rey made sure the coast was clear, glancing back at Clyde she gave him a blinding smile before slipping out of his cabin and tiptoeing back across the grass. 

As she crawled back into her bunk, making it sway just a little, Rose groaned and looked over the edge. “How is Poe?”

“He’s good,” Rey whispered back. 

Even in the dark, Rey could see Rose narrow her eyes, “And how are you?”

“Satisfied,” Rey smirked. “Now go back to sleep. I have to be up early tomorrow.”

* * *

Rey was up with the sun. It was a Saturday, but that day she had to tend to the horses before breakfast—because the entire camp was going on a field trip up to Helen to go tubing down the Chattahoochee River. 

The outings were always Rey’s favorite, since it was the only chance she had to travel. When she was in Atlanta, Plutt put her to work after school, and she only got as far as the local pool or library. 

But being up at 5 am after staying out entirely too late riding the lap of a gorgeous man had her dragging, but also living with no regrets. As she visited the bathroom that morning, she was sore from his large fingers, and it sort of burned when she peed. Rey cursed, not stopping by the bathroom before returning to her cabin. They hadn’t had sex, but the last thing she wanted to explain to the nurse was a urinary tract infection. 

What concerned her more was the pink tinge to the toilet paper when she cleaned herself up and stood there with her shorts around her ankles, trying to figure the date in her head. Rey cursed again and grabbed the box of tampons from her toiletry bag. This would put a damper on her activity with Clyde over the next week. 

Out at the stables, Rey’s music was upbeat, and her hips swayed as she mucked out the stalls. The heat was stifling, and she was looking forward to the cold water of the river and floating downstream with her friends. 

She turned from inside the stall of a horse named Tennessee when she heard a low whistle, and smiled when she saw Clyde leaning up against the door. 

His eyes raked over her for a long moment, taking in her cut off shorts, worn cowgirl boots, and a long-sleeved shirt tied up around her waist. “You look about as sweet as my mama’s blueberry pie coolin’ on a spring evenin’.”

Rey giggled and set her pitchfork aside. “Why does that make me hungry and horny at the same time?”

He toyed with the knot of her shirt, threading his finger between the buttons and pulling slightly. “I would be obliged to assist the lady with both of those things.”

His face came down, and Clyde nuzzled his nose against her. “Someone could see us,” Rey whispered. 

“Sarah went back to camp to collect her campers.”

“And what reason do you have to be up here?” Rey nuzzled him back. 

“Makin’ sure the shed is locked an’ no one can get their hands on a BB gun.”

“Always thinking about safety…” she trailed off with hooded eyes.

“Always—” he finally pressed his lips to hers and pulled her in close. “Speaking of safety, Chewie is goin’ to let me drive the camp truck up to Helen, which means I can stop for a few items on the way back.”

Rey groaned and laid her forehead against his chest. 

Clyde took a step back, holding her shoulders at arm’s length and took in her displeased expression. “I don’t—we don’t have to. Just last night you said—“

Not wanting to use her dirty fingers, she silenced him with her lips. “No, I want you to get the condoms, but we are going to put it off for a little while.”

Clyde hoped that he didn’t look disappointed, but he was—but also he wasn’t. Clyde wanted to do this right, wanted to have something beyond a four-week fling with Rey. On the other side of his nineteen-year-old brain was the memory of how tight and warm she had felt around his fingers, and he wanted to know every little sound she would make when he slid within her. 

“We can wait as long as ya want to,” he finally said with reassurance. 

“Trust me, Clyde, I don’t want to wait, but Mother Nature had other plans.”

His brow creased, “Mother Nat—”

“I got my period,” Rey blurted out, and her cheeks flamed. 

“Oh,” he said, a little higher than his usual baritone. When he saw Rey turn red and start to fidget, Clyde blessed his sister once more. “Ain’t nothing to be embarrassed about. Stuff like that don’t bother me none. Had to take Mellie up to the Rite Aid plenty of times.”

Rey also wanted to bless Clyde’s sister for making him so attuned to women. She also figured that his mama and daddy raised him right, and she was now reaping the benefits of him being so gentle, understanding—and tall—she mused as she ran her hands up his chest to pull him back into a kiss. “Thank you, Clyde.”

“No need to thank me. Just doing what’s right.”

“You are not a normal nineteen-year-old,” she giggled. 

He wasn’t going to argue with her, not wanting her to stop looking at him like that. So he kept his mouth such about how much of a nineteen-year-old he could be. He couldn’t give a shit if she was on her period. If Rey had wanted him, he would have given her anything she desired and not make her feel uncomfortable about any part of her body. 

Clyde kissed her once more before being shooed off so she could finish putting out the horse and grab a quick shower before getting on the bus with the rest of the campers. It would suck not being able to take the hour-long trip with Clyde in the camp truck, but Rey also knew that she had been ignoring her friends over the past week and needed to catch up with them. 

* * *

Rey rode in the back of the bus with Poe’s arm thrown over her shoulders. He had whispered ‘thank you’ to her and gave her a little wink. If only she could tell him that she had also enjoyed herself, but she would never compromise Clyde’s future for bragging rights. 

Helen was a quaint town in north Georgia, and it looked like a little German village that was always decked out for Christmas. Rey loved it here. She loved that families would vacation here—loved that couples would tuck themselves away in the cabins on the outskirts of town, or walk hand-in-hand down the Main Street window shopping and sipping hot cocoa. She sighed while looking out the window and wondered if she could ever have that—wondered if she could have that with Clyde. 

“We’re here!” Rose called out and brought Rey’s attention back to the present.

They always went tubing in the same place, a small state park that was set along the river that would rent tubes out to tourists. There were picnic pavilions scattered throughout the park, and Rey knew that when they exited the river after a few hours of drifting that they would eat bagged lunches before heading back to camp. 

The older campers were the last to be unloaded from the buses. Over the abundance of kids milling about and trying to be counted and corralled by counselors, she spotted Clyde talking with Amilyn over by the camp truck. 

“I wish Chewie had come,” Amilyn said while looking around at the chaos. 

Biting her lip, Rey straightened her tank top and walked up to them. “You look a little stressed, Amilyn. Anything I can help with?”

“Oh, Rey, honey. I’m not sure—” The older woman looked around and saw that campers were already being handed tubes and being ushered towards the water. “I wish we had one more counselor.”

Rey was thankful that Clyde already knew about her age, and this was not the scenario that he was blindsided that she was, for all intents and purposes, a camper. “I can help. Really Amilyn, just tell me how I can help.”

The older woman adjusted her baseball hat and looked around once more before focusing on Rey. “You have your driver’s license, right?”

“Not on me, but I do have a valid license.”

“Okay—I wouldn’t allow this for anyone else, but I trust you, Rey.”

Rey’s heart clenched at her mentor’s words. She didn’t want to let Amilyn down after everything she had done for her over the years, but Rey also knew that she would take a scolding and a few disappointed looks for what she felt for Clyde. 

“Clyde is going to drive the bus down to the river exit, and then I need you to follow with the truck. You both can hop into the river when you get back and catch up with everyone else.”

It took everything in Rey not to let the largest smile bloom on her face. Instead, she pinched her brows together as if focused on the task at hand and nodded to affirm understanding. 

Clyde, on the other hand, was hopeless, and his cheeks creased with his smile as he held out the keys to the truck for her. Rey snatched them and pretended to be only slightly annoyed with him as they retreated to their vehicles, and she followed the repurposed yellow school bus down the park’s dirt roads. 

He may have taken some extra time to make sure that the bus was locked up, and Rey honked the horn at him and laughed as he seemed to be moving in slow motion back to the truck. He came to the driver’s side and tickled her side as Rey slid across the bench seat and let him drive them back to the river head. 

She curled up against his side as he drove them back up to the river head. Rey imagined that this was their life together—riding down a dusty road in an old pick-up, Clyde’s arm thrown around her, and Rey’s head was resting on his shoulder with John Denver playing on the radio. 

Long before either of them would have liked, Clyde was parking the truck by the rental office and, tubes in hand, made their way down to the river. 

The spring-fed river was a constant seventy degrees and an inviting clear blue color. Rey was not a stranger to the surprising chill of the water, so she giggled as Clyde hissed when stepping into the river. “Don’t be such a baby,” she teased. 

Clyde got a gleam in his eyes and lunged towards her, picking her up as if she weighed nothing, and tossed her into about five feet of water. She surfaced with a slight cry at being fully submerged in the chilled water. “I reckon it’s better to just take the plunge all at once,” he drawled with a smile and pushed an inflated tube towards her.

Rey gave him a sarcastic smile and grabbed her tube, “Thanks for your help.”

He was on her again, but this time taking her around the middle. His large hands felt like heated heaven against her cool skin. “I aim to please,” he whispered as he leaned down to kiss her freckled shoulder. She shivered under his hold, and he smiled with the hope that it had nothing to do with the temperature. When he lifted his lips from her skin, Clyde gripped her around the waist, and Rey squealed, thinking that he would throw her again, he instead plopped her down in the opening of the inner tube. 

She was giggling by the time he had to give it three tries to get right in his tube, flipping it once and dunking himself. He came up looking like a drowned rat, and Rey covered her face with her fingertips as she laughed, at not only his antics but also at his ears that stood out from his dark hair. 

Feeling self-conscious, Clyde shook his head like a dog, and his hair fell back over his ears. 

“I like them.” Rey said plainly. 

“You like what, darlin’?” He asked, playing coy.

She gave him a soft smile. “Your ears. They are adorable.”

“Just wait ’til you see me with a buzz cut and these radars stickin’ out the sides of my head.”

“You will still be the most handsome man I’ve ever met.”

Clyde blushed as they started to drift down the river, and he just gave Rey a smile that said, ‘If you say so—but I don’t believe you.’

They had no intention of catching up with the rest of the group, so Rey threw her leg over the side of Clyde’s tube to link them together and make sure they wouldn’t be separated. He brought her foot into his lap and grazed his fingers over her toes, up her arch, gripping her ankle tighter when she squirmed from being ticklish.

When he brushed his fingers up her foot again, Rey splashed him with water, and he just smiled at her and instead decided to run his hands along her tan calf. They were drifting in silence for a while, both with their heads leaned back and enjoying the warm sun above and the chilled water below. Clyde thought that this moment couldn’t be made any more perfect—that was until Rey took off her shirt. 

She stayed in a pair of her Lycra running shorts, because the last thing Rey wanted was a tampon string popping out of her bikini bottoms, but she wore a simple pale pink bikini top under her white tank. When she shifted in her tube, it gathered Clyde’s attention, and he opened his eyes to see if something was the matter. 

Pulling her tank over her head, Rey dipped it in the water and rang it out over her chest, cooling her heated skin. Clyde’s grip on her leg tightened, and his eyes looked—hungry. 

“Like something you see, Clyde?”

He licked his lips and nodded. “I know what yur tiddies look like, and it’s a damn shame they are covered right now.”

Rey flicked water at him again and pretended to be offended, but then she traced her fingers along the triangles of fabric of her bathing suit top. Looking up and down the river, she saw that they were alone, so she bit her lip and started to pull the fabric to the side. “You mean these?”

Clyde planted his hand up above her knee and pulled her closer as he shifted out of his tube. In a move that would be impossible to repeat, he pounced on her with his foot still looped into the center of his inner tube, so it didn’t float away again. 

Rey laughed and gripped on to his flanks as she felt her tube dip. “It can’t hold both of us, Clyde! We’re going to go under!”

Her knees fell to either side of his hips, and with his body stretched over the two tubes, they were just able to stay afloat. His elbows were pressed into her tube and kept him from crushing Rey, but his hands were free, and they ran over her face, hair, and down to her still exposed chest. Her nipples were pebble hard, either from the cold water now lapping over her chest or from his fingers.

“Yur so pretty,” he said as his large brown eyes took in every freckle on her nose and cheeks. 

“You only say that because I showed you my boobs,” Rey laughed. 

Clyde immediately took his hands away from her chest and cupped her face. “The tiddies are very nice, but there’s so much more ta ya. I’m starting to think if God somehow brought ya to me—that maybe I’m not cursed after all.”

He dipped down to kiss her, and once Rey was breathless, he moved to her jaw. Even though she was scratching her fingernails down his back and rocking her hips up against him, Rey nudged his cheek with her chin so that he would look at her. “Why would you be cursed?”

With a sigh, Clyde shifted himself back to his tube with an agility that Rey didn’t think a man so large could have. He took her foot back up in his lap and ran chilled water along her heated thigh and calf. “Our family is cursed—at least that’s what daddy said and look at what happened ta him.”

They drifted, and Clyde listed off all of the Logan’s who had the misfortune to be touched by the curse. His granny, aunt on his father’s side, daddy of course, and even Jimmy with his football injury as he was being scouted for pro-ball. “It’s only a matter of time before the curse hits me too.”

His expression was worried, and he looked down and focused on her foot as he rubbed it with both hands. Clyde sent up a silent prayer that Rey wouldn’t be involved in his punishment of being born a Logan. 

“Hey, now,” Rey said, shifting forward and touching his arm and trying to draw his eyes up. “You aren’t cursed. Bad things happen to families all the time. Look at me, I could think that I have the worst luck with dead parents and a drunk for a foster father, but the hard life and the struggle have made me strong and compassionate—just like you.”

Clyde’s stomach cramped with the overwhelming feeling that he might be falling for this girl. He was amazed by her, he saw her flaws—he saw what her childhood did to her, but he also saw the blinding light of someone so full of hope that it made his chest hurt. 

He wished that they weren’t floating down a river and that he couldn’t hear the rest of the campers just up the bend, because Clyde would take the beautiful girl that was looking at him like he was everything, and show her just how much he prayed that what they had wouldn’t end in disaster. 

Instead, he reached out his long arm and caught hold of a low lying branch while keeping a grip on her calf.

“What are you doing?” Rey laughed.

“Givin’ us some space.” They both smiled as they listened to the voices of the campers get further away. 

Clyde let go of the branch once the forest was quiet around them, and they continued to float down the clear blue water. The sun was warm, and Rey wet her shirt before draping it over her face to prevent getting burnt. Clyde would occasionally dip his head back to dunk his dark hair, but for most of the trip down the river, he pulled handfuls of cool water to smooth over Rey’s tanned legs. 

She would hum in satisfaction when her sun-kissed skin would be relieved by the chilled water and also the touch of Clyde’s rough hands. She couldn’t wait for him to touch all of her—and for her to feel all of him. Despite being on her period, Rey squirmed in her tube as his fingers trailed lazily along her thighs. This man was killing her slowly, and it was a descent into the abyss that she was happy to take. 

Far too soon for their liking, Rey and Clyde heard the screams and laughter of the campers, and they both straightened their posture, but Rey kept her foot slung over his tube. He, of course, stopped touching her so intimately, but it wouldn’t seem out of the ordinary for them to want to stay together on their trip down the river. 

Clyde popped out of his tube first, grabbing Rey’s tube and pulling her into the shallows where the river exit was. She dipped into the water, cooling her overheated skin and pushed her hair back from her face. Clyde was already stepping out of the river and didn’t look back. 

Rey couldn’t take it to heart, she knew that they couldn’t exchange longing looks, and Amilyn had expected them to catch up with the group long ago. So she scrambled out of the river and saw Rose holding up a towel. 

“Where were you?” Rose asked.

“Amilyn asked me to help out with something, and that meant that Clyde and I went in the river late.”

Rose lifted her brow. “You and Clyde, huh?”

Rey told herself not to blush. “He’s a friend, Rose—and a counselor, which means hands-off.”

“That hasn’t stopped other people,” Rose whispered and nodded towards Kelly. 

“Really? Who?” Rey grabbed Rose’s arm with excitement, mainly to get the attention off herself and Clyde. 

“Word around the cabin is she is planning to sneak out and meet up with Hux tonight.”

“Hux?” Rey questioned. “But he is with Gwen.”

Rose just shrugged. “Apparently he’s with a lot of people.”

Rey shuddered and was happy that Clyde wasn’t a player like that—she hoped—she assumed. They briefly talked about their pasts, and Rey tried not to get her hopes up about the future, but something deep in her gut told her that they could be something great. 

The rest of the trip was uneventful. The campers ate a bagged lunch under the park pavilions and then loaded back on to the bus to make it back to camp in time for everyone to get cleaned up, pick up their laundry, and make it to supper before lights out. 

* * *

They were officially on to their second week of camp, and Rey couldn’t believe how fast time was flying. She continued to help out the counselors and figured that she would remain on the same schedule for the rest of the month. Hux she could do without, but she loved to swim, and she didn’t even want to think about being moved from Clyde’s class. 

This year the Fourth of July fell on a Thursday, and the camp started to ramp up for the celebration. Rey loved coming to the camp and being able to see fireworks, grill out, make s’ mores, and just have a fun night with her friends. Before the camp, she would curl up in her room and not know what all the booms and crackles were outside her dingy window. 

That morning as Rey and Clyde walked out to the archery range, she may have also slid up real close to him, brushing her fingers against his, and whispered, “I finished last night.”

Clyde felt like her touch sent electricity up his arm, and his hairs stood on end, but he pinched his brow together at her. “Finished what?”

She softly laughed and looked down suggestively. When Clyde’s sweet face still looked confused she huffed playfully. “Maybe tonight we can put to use what you bought at the store over the weekend?”

Recognition bloomed across his face, and he had the decency to blush and nod as his ear also heated. His gaze trailed hungrily down her body, back up, and he thought about getting her naked and squirming under him. 

They both buzzed with excitement through the archery class, and then Rey hurried off to help Hux with the swim class. Brownie was getting so good, and could swim the length of the pool with the use of a kickboard. Rey attempted not to be distracted by the man who was sitting outside of his cabin just fifty feet behind her. He sat in his red camping chair and plucked away at his guitar like it was any other day, and not the day that Rey would be able to finally climax on his dick. 

Rey also did not help him out as she paced the length of the pool, bending at the waist to talk to the campers in the water and giving Clyde a clear view of her one-piece suit riding up between her thighs and ass cheeks. She was fully satisfied when she heard him miss a few cords of a Bob Dylan song, and then he stopped playing altogether. 

About ten minutes before class was over, Rey looked over her shoulder and frowned when she saw the red chair empty. What she didn’t know was that Clyde was in his cabin, beating his hard cock to the thought of her sweet pussy and praying that he would last more than two seconds when they had sex that night. 

After dinner, Rey headed to the showers. She needed to wash the day’s grime and chlorine from her skin. If Clyde had the notion of going down on her—she only had plans to get him inside of her as soon as possible—but Rey wanted to tidy things up downstairs. 

She shaved her thighs and pussy lips, and then Rey ran a hand down and over the smooth skin. She remembered the size of Clyde’s cock when it was in her hand and down her throat. Pushing two of her fingers into her core, she shivered and thought that he would never fit. 

But she needed to relax, and the thought of him made her wet, and so as quietly as she could, Rey pumped her fingers into her core and rubbed at her clit until she was gasping out an orgasm into the older girls bathroom. Panting and red-faced, Rey quickly pulled her fingers from within herself when she heard other campers enter the bathroom, and soon the four-person shower stall was filled with other girls. 

Drying off and dressing in her American flag bikini with a simple tank and jean shorts over, Rey hurried out of the door and ran into Clyde on the four-square court outside of the bathrooms. “Oh, hey…” she bit her lip and hoped that by looking at her, he wouldn’t be able to tell what she just did to herself. 

His hair was still dripping from the shower, and he shifted on his feet. “Evenin’,” he said shortly, and hoped that Rey couldn’t tell that he had just finished jerking off for the second time that day with only thoughts of her moaning and quaking around him in his mind. 

This was so awkward. They just stood face to face, but no other words came. In a few short hours, they would be having sex, but in the middle of the camp, they could only act as indifferent acquaintances. Finally Rey rolled up on her toes and then back to her heels, getting a whiff of his citrus body wash and resisting the urge to grab him. “I guess I’ll see you later?”

Why had it come out as a question? As if he wasn’t itching to pull her into his cabin and not let her out until the twelve-pack of condoms were used up. Clyde couldn’t help the smile that tugged at his lips. “Yes, darlin’. Later.”

Rey’s attention was finally pulled away when Rose called her name from across the pool. “You coming?” Rose hollered from the steps of the cabin and waved her hand. 

She looked back at Clyde and bit the corner of her lip. “Later,” she confirmed. 

The group of girls from Cabin 8 walked across the wide field and to the campfire location by the lake’s edge. Chewie was adding logs to the fire and also stacking more close by to keep it going for the next few hours. It was twilight, and a few other counselors started to pass out boxes of s’ more fixin’s. Once it was dark, the camp would set off fireworks over the lake and play music for an outdoor dance of sorts. 

Poe slid onto the log next to Rey and took the marshmallow and roasting stick out of her hand. “Hey babe. Allow me.”

She tried not to show any annoyance, she tried to remember that she agreed to fake-date Poe for the next few weeks, but Rey could set her own marshmallows on fire and didn’t need him feeding her. 

This line of thoughts made Rey think about licking melted chocolate off Clyde’s thick fingers and—perhaps some of part of him. She gulped down the lump in her throat while smiling and nodding at whatever Poe was going on about. Looking around the campfire, she saw Clyde standing with Dani and Gwen. As if he could feel her eyes on him, he turned and returned her stare—giving a slight smirk in some unspoken reassurance that he only had eyes for her. 

It worked, but Rey’s heart was still threatening to beat out of her chest. She wanted him now—she did not want to share him with anyone else. The possessiveness scared Rey just enough to make her break eye contact and turn to Rose, asking some off-handed question about the summer. 

The sun had set, and the counselors were now passing out treats that were decorated in red, white, and blue. Rey knew that it would only be another thirty minutes until the fireworks. Glancing around the group again, she caught Clyde’s gaze. He was leaning up against a tree next to the trail that would wind through the woods. The flashlight in his hand came up, and he smiled while illuminating his face from below his chin like he was about to tell a ghost story. 

It was time, and Rey wiped her sticky hands on her jean shorts and told her friends that she was going to run back to the cabin for something and hit up the restroom on the way back. She may have only told Poe, because she knew that one of the girls would want to come with her. But her fake-boyfriend nodded and made a little show of grabbing her thigh like they were intimately familiar. 

Even though Clyde was only three years older than Poe, Rey had a feeling that once she followed him into the woods, once they crossed the line and fell into each other, that no one else would ever make her feel the same way again.


	8. In the Mornin’ Hour

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello ReyLogan lovers!! I hope you enjoy this smutty little chapter!
> 
> HUGE thank you to MyJediLife for the beta!!! You do not even know how much I love you! Well....I did write you ReyLogan smut...so you might know know much I love you.   
> ❤️

**In the Mornin’ Hour**

  
  


Rey was able to make some excuse about needing to run out to the stables and make sure the horses were settled during all the fireworks. Rose pouted, but then Finn handed her a s'more, and she was easily distracted. 

She followed the trail into the woods and further away from the glow of the campfire and the sounds of campers getting ready for the show over the lake. 

Clyde was waiting for her just around a bend in the trail with a flashlight pressed to his leg. It let off enough light to show their features, but also muted it enough so they wouldn't be found out. Rey chewed on her lip for a long moment, looking up at the beautiful and kind man that she was about to ravage. 

"Hi," she spoke quietly, not knowing how to get this started. 

"Hey," he drawled back before reaching for her hand. 

Rey took it without hesitation and allowed him to pull her further into the woods. He pointed the flashlight at roots that stuck out from the ground, whispering warnings about pits and rocks. Before long, the trees thinned, and Rey saw that they were back at the lakeshore, but more than two hundred yards down from where the rest of the camp was gathered. They could hear faint hollers of excitement, but they were completely hidden in the tall cattails. 

On the ground was a plaid blanket and Clyde nervously scratched at the back of his neck, "I know ya deserve more than a sheet by a lake—"

Rey squeezed his hand and smiled up at him. The moon was their only light. "It's perfect, Clyde." 

He returned her smile and clicked off the flashlight before throwing it down onto the corner of the blanket. Releasing her hand, he started to bend down and reach for something else, "I got you some gummy bears and a Dr. Pepper for—"

But she reached out and grabbed his hand again, "After. Right now, I just want you."

Rey gathered the hem of her tank top to prove her point and pulled it over her head, revealing her American Flag bikini top. The top button of her shorts was already undone, and she quickly shimmied out of the denim. 

Clyde took a few seconds to drink in what seemed like miles of her tan skin before he kicked out of his half tied boots while gripping his shirt behind the collar and yanking it off. He started on the button of his camo cargo shorts, and Rey stepped up to him, placing her hands over his and pressing a kiss to his sternum before glancing up at him and wanting to melt under his heated gaze. 

"Let me," she offered. 

He could only nod as Rey slowly pushed the worn button through the hole, and then with even less haste, pulled down the zipper, guiding his shorts to the ground. Clyde sank to his knees as Rey settled herself on the blanket and, without any hesitation, cupped her face and kissed her fiercely. 

As her lips opened to him and they deepened the kiss, their hands moved—Rey to the strings tying her top together and Clyde to his boxers, pushing them down his thighs and then rocking on his knees to shift them off. Rey's breasts were in his palms as soon he kicked the boxers off, and they moaned into the kiss. 

Her hot hand moved between his legs, cupping his already hard cock. She whimpered at the thought of that fitting inside of her—but she was anything if not determined. Clyde started to guide her to lay back, but Rey pressed her other hand to his chest. "Do you mind if I stay on top?"

He blinked at her, and she must have mistaken his silence as a denial. "It's been a while, and you are kinda—large—and I just want to take it slow."

Clyde puffed out like he had the wind knocked out of him, and he said a silent thank you to himself for jerking off twice that day to make sure he didn't embarrass himself in front of Rey. Truthfully, the few times he had sex with Heathyr, he had been on top each time, so what Rey was offering was entirely new. 

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Clyde nodded and started to sink back onto the blanket. "Whatever ya want, darlin'."

Rey leaned forward again and captured his lips as she slid out of her bottoms and then crawled towards his lap, throwing her leg over his spread thighs. 

They were completely naked, and the soft waves of the lake lapped at the shore behind them as she pressed her chest to his, loving his warmth, and rolled her hips forward, dragging her already wet core up the length of his cock. 

She’d known that she would need to be ready for him, so Rey rubbed herself to orgasm in the showers just before getting dressed for the festivities. Her cunt was still dripping from her climax, and if Clyde wasn’t enthusiastically groaning against her chest, she might have been slightly embarrassed by the mess she was making. 

"Please tell me you brought the condoms," Rey panted out as his tongue circled one of her nipples. 

"Front pocket—pants—" he grunted out as he gripped her ass, pulling her against his cock again and switching to her other breast. 

Rey reached over, giggling at his unsatisfied grunt when her tit popped from his mouth, but pulled his discarded shorts between them and dug into the front pockets. Pulling out the gold wrapped condom, Rey cursed, "Shit, how are you going to fit in me?"

Clyde was kissing up her neck, and his voice vibrated against her heated skin. "We don't have to if ya don't want to."

"No—" Rey started and pulled his face up to be level with hers, looking into his dark eyes so he would know that she meant it. "I want this. I want you. But could you maybe—um—make me come first?"

A smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth. "It would be my pleasure, ma’am." He pulled her hips towards his lap a few times, rubbing his hard cock against her slit and kissed away her soft moans before he dipped his hand between them and rubbed her clit. 

When she was grinding against his hand and dripping wet, Clyde slid his hand down and pumped two fingers inside of her while the heel of his hand kept the pressure on her clit. Rey fucked herself down on his hand as he continued to kiss her lips, jaw, neck, and tits. 

Within a few minutes, she was whimpering an orgasm into his mouth. Her thighs clamped around his hips, and then her legs quivered with each come-hither stoke of his fingers. "Yer so pretty when you do that."

She blushed and picked up the condom from the blanket, ripping the wrapper between her teeth as she still was panting out breaths. "I want you in me," Rey said as she looked down between them and rolled the condom down his ramrod cock. 

"Are ya sure?" he asked one more time, not used to a girl being so enthusiastic about sex—especially not with him. 

"Yes," Rey answered without hesitation and pressed up on her knees before guiding the head of his cock down her wet slit and making it catch on her entrance. Before she moved to take him in, she looked up to meet his eyes again. "Are you sure?"

"I've never wanted anythin' so badly."

Rey smiled and kissed him as she sank down, sucking in a breath as she felt his gland stretch her cunt. It was slow going, shifting up and down his shaft as inch after inch of him disappeared inside of her. Clyde lightly held her hips, not pushing down at all, but also encouraging her to keep moving. 

She was tight, and Clyde started to worry that just Rey fucking herself on the first half of him would make him come before too long. He tried to think of anything to hold off his climax, and the memory of the awful smell of the boy's locker room at the high school did the trick. 

Within another minute, Rey was settled all the way down in his lap. Her chest was heaving, and her fingers gripped into his shoulder and at the back of his head. The stretch was intense, and Rey felt like there wasn't a spot within her that wasn't being touched. She said a silent thank you to Jacen for taking her virginity, because otherwise, this would be a much different and much more uncomfortable situation. 

They were kissing again. Clyde shifted under her, somehow rolling in deeper and pressing against her cervix in an almost painful way. "Don't move—" she said somewhere between a moan and a whimper. 

"I'm not…" Clyde softly whined, like a child being accused of something he didn't do. He tried to take deep breaths through his nose and, for the love of God—tried to not move. 

Taking a few more breaths, Rey lifted off him a few inches before pressing back down. "Holy fuck—"

"Ya okay?" He had to make an effort not to squeeze her hips to the point of bruising. 

"Yeah," she said breathlessly, and fucked herself on the first few inches of him again, loving how the head of his cock rubbed that spot at the front of her core she could never reach. A few more shifts of her hips, and then Rey sank all the way back down on him, and her body tightened. "Shit—oh my god—" and she was coming again. 

"Oh, darlin'," he drawled out as he felt her grip him tight, and his cock twitched within her, and he held off the urge to start thrusting. 

Rey took in a few deep breaths as she rolled her hips and rode out her orgasm. "I am so sorry."

"Fer what?" Clyde continued to breathe through his nose, his hands running along her back in a comforting manner, not quite figuring out why she was upset. 

"I wanted to give you more than thirty seconds." She ducked her face and rested her forehead on his shoulder. "I tried—I thought I prepared myself enough."

His mind swam with her meaning. He thought about how he'd taken himself in hand earlier to prevent any embarrassment, but Rey had no reason to feel shame for being entirely sexy and coming on his dick. 

He tilted her face back up with his fingers under her chin, letting his dark gaze bore into her in the moonlight. "Did you…" he asked while slightly nudging himself up into her. 

Rey's cheeks heated. "Yeah—I knew you were big. I wanted it to—fit." 

"So did I," he says, his ear turning red. "Jerked off—and of course, wanted it to fit— but I jerked off like three times today. Otherwise, I would be comin' already cause ya feel so fuckin' good."

A sly smile spread on Rey's lips, and she shifted in his lap, "I think I should take that as a compliment…"

"Ya should—and I'm glad you were able to get yer cookies, cause as soon as I start in on ya—I'm not going to last."

His words made her core clamp down and a shiver ran through her body that had nothing to do with the balmy July weather. "God, that sounds fantastic," Rey said with a soft giggle, and smashed her lips to his. 

Clyde groaned and wrapped his arms around her back, shifted forward and cradled Rey to the ground, covering her with his body. The tip of his cock dipped within her a few times, and then he sunk in deep, stealing her breath and kissing the pinch between her brows. "Almost heaven…" he sighed as he started to thrust.

They continued to kiss, mostly to keep Rey's cries of pleasure muffled. Then the fireworks started booming over the water behind them. Rey tipped her head back only for a moment to watch the colors explode in the sky and dance over the water of the lake. Clyde saw the light flash in her eyes and paint her face as he kissed her neck and allowed his hands to explore her breasts. 

Her attention came back to the breathtaking man moving above her, the lights in the sky paled by Clyde's passion to keep her in the moment with him. She reached up and ran her fingers into his hair, pulling his lips to hers. Her legs wrapped around his hips, drawing him in deeper, holding him close, wanting this time to go on forever. 

But her body felt like a dream, and Clyde was a vigorous nineteen-year-old boy. The tightening in his stomach was building with each roll of his hips into her pliable core. "Darlin'. I’m gonna—" he cooed again, his voice raw in his throat. 

The last firework crackled in the sky, red sparks raining down over the lake as Rey pulled him down for a hungry kiss. He groaned against her lips and spilled inside the condom. His cock twitched deep in her cunt. 

They laid there for a long time, both of their chests heaving and just looking at each other. His face was so honest—but somehow unreadable. Perhaps it was because Rey had never had anyone look at her the way Clyde did—maybe she didn't know what it meant to be instantly shifted to the center of someone else's universe. How could she have known that the unlucky boy from West Virginia was desperately falling in love with her? 

Her heart seemed to skip a beat every few seconds, and even though she felt him softening within her and the discomfort of drying condom lube, Rey wanted to stay with Clyde like that forever. Her hands couldn't stop touching him everywhere, and her lips explored his chest, neck, and chin. She felt like what they just did was not a quick fuck while Jacen's roommate ran out to get pizza—it was more—it was what all those people write about when they meet their soulmate. 

The realization of this made Rey sob, just a quiet hitch of her breath, but Clyde noticed—like he noticed everything about her. "Did I hurtcha?"

Rey sniffled, but also let out a little laugh. "No," she said while pulling him down for a soft kiss. "You were perfect."

His brow was still furrowed. When womenfolk cried, it usually meant that they were upset or disappointed in him. Beyond being completely naked, Clyde also felt vulnerable, and he tried to pull away from her. 

Not ready to break from him, Rey wrapped her legs tighter around his hips and pressed her heels into his firm ass. "Nothing is wrong."

"Then why ya cryin'?"

Rey's eyes blinked slowly, her lids heavy with exhaustion and also pure satisfaction. "I'm happy, Clyde. I didn't know that it could be like this."

Without having to ask her meaning, Clyde understood, and his body relaxed, sinking deeper into the cradle of her hips as he kissed her with everything in him. 

* * *

Rey knew that she could not sneak out the next night, even though everything in her was pulling her towards the cramped counselor's cabin with it's 1970's wood-paneled walls and worn concrete floor. They stole glances over the next few days. Clyde slid into the stables in the morning to kiss her senseless, and they would lay out in the field during free-hour and talk about everything and nothing. 

They both hated how their time seemed to be slipping away. Each morning was one more day closer to when Rey would head back to Atlanta, and Clyde would become property of the US Army. They didn't talk about what would happen after—even if he asked if she was excited about senior year, and she wondered what parts of the world he hoped to see on R-and-R. 

Finally, on that Friday, Poe came up and asked if Rey would sneak out to cover for him again. She was more than happy, but tried to keep the blinding smile off her face, only reminding him to be safe. Poe answered with a wide grin and kissed her on the cheek before trotting down the hill to catch up with the other boys and head to dinner. 

Rey walked up towards the lodge as well. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach when she saw Clyde sitting outside of his cabin, strumming on his guitar. She may have walked a little too close to him, maybe twisting her hip more than she needed to in her small jean shorts. Hearing him fault a cord of  _ Every Rose Has It's Thorn _ , Rey turned with a sly smile. "Tonight," she said directly with a wink, and she loved the boyish smirk he gave her in return. 

It was well past ten when she checked her knock-off Baby-G watch and slid out of her bunk. "I'm meeting up with Poe," she whispered at Rose as she poked at her friend's shoulder. When she received a grumble and a sleepy wave of her hand, Rey knew she was heard. 

The camp was quiet apart from the drone of bugs from inside the tree line. She only had to lightly tap on his door twice before Clyde was pulling her inside. Barely a giggle passed her lips before he was kissing her. 

"Missed you," he said into the kiss. 

"You saw me all day," she teased. 

Groaning, he picked her up by the backs of her thighs and pressed himself into her. Rey's breath caught as she drug her fingers through his hair and whimpered. "Missed you, too," she admitted. 

He carried her to his bed, cradling her as they went down as to not make the springs on the frame squeak too loudly. They kissed, their hips rutting against each other, and hands ran trails along warm skin. "Want you," Rey panted into his neck as she licked up behind his ear, nibbling on the lobe like she knew he liked. 

"Yes, ma'am," he answered, and kissed across the skin on her chest that wasn't covered by the thin gray tank top she wore. Clyde slid off of her to grab a condom off the small dresser across the room. 

Rey shifted on the bed, pulling off her tank and sliding the sleep shorts down her legs. Clyde threw the condom on the bed next to her as he stripped. She looked like a vision, kneeling in the middle of the bed with only the lights from the pool coming in through the closed blinds. Even in the dark room, her eyes glowed with lust, and he was back to her in one giant step, cupping her cheeks and bringing their lips together. 

She touched his chest and guided him down to the mattress, swinging her leg over his hips without breaking the kiss. He was well over a half foot taller than her, so her core hovered over his belly button as they took their time exploring the newly exposed skin.

Rey sat up to reach behind her and stroke Clyde's ready cock, but went still as they both heard voices from the next cabin. Something about the voice was familiar, and Rey strained to listen. 

"What the hell?" Came the muffled voice through the wall. 

"Keep it down, kid. You're not supposed to be in here."

Rey looked down at Clyde and tilted her chin towards the wall. "Hux's room?" She whispered. 

Clyde nodded and traced his hands up her hips, running his fingers over her ribs and just under her breasts. 

"I saw you with that chick from Cabin 8 the other day, Hux. I thought we were having a thing?"

That voice—Rey thought, and then sucked in a breath in surprise. "Poe—"

She had wondered who Poe was sneaking around with, thinking that it was maybe another camper who wasn't out, but she didn't believe it was Hux, who she had seen with Gwen and Dani. Shifting her knees up the bed, Rey crawled closer to the wall, almost pressing her ear to the wood paneling. 

"Yeah, Kelly. She's sweet." Hux's tone was light, as if he recalled a pleasant memory. 

"So what? Are you bi or something?" Poe asked. 

"Look, kid. I don't need to put labels on what I am. If I like a girl, I fuck her. If I think a guy is hot, I fuck him, too. I am at this camp to have fun with whoever is willing, and I won't apologize for that. So you can either scurry back to your cabin, or you can let me blow you. Your choice."

Rey's mouth hung open at the balls on Hux, but then she gasped and tried to suppress a deep, throaty moan. While she was distracted by eavesdropping, Clyde had shimmied lower in the bed, and now his lips were wrapped around her clit, sucking and flicking it with his tongue. 

"Got to be quiet darlin'. Ya know how thin these walls are." He smirked from below her. 

If she couldn't wipe the smug look off his face, she could smother it, and she lowered her core back over his mouth. "Just shut up and make me come," she snarked back and rolled her hips, smearing her clit up against his nose. 

She only heard mumbling from below her, and knew that he drawled out 'yes, ma'am' before returning to fucking her with his tongue and drawing his rough upper lip over her clit. Rey had to hold onto the wooden headboard to keep herself steady. Jacen never ate her out—even though this was her favorite part of watching porn. 

The moans from the cabin next to them didn't seem to affect Clyde as he brought her to a crashing climax. Her thighs trembled against his cheeks, and her forehead rested on folded arms upon the headboard as she tried to catch her breath. 

"That good, darlin'?" He asked as his hands rubbed up her thighs, across her rear, and kneaded into her lower back. 

"If I didn't want you to fuck me so badly, I would ask you to do that again."

A wolfish smile spread on his lips, and Clyde lunged, taking Rey around the waist and flipping her onto his bed. The springs below the mattress squeaked in protest under their weight. Rey giggled and reached her hand under her ass, fishing for the condom and handing it to Clyde as she spread her knees for him. 

* * *

Rey couldn't believe how quickly time was slipping away from her. It felt like she only arrived a few days ago, and now they were standing around eating hamburgers and hotdogs—camp always had a large cookout the day before more than half the campers would go home. 

That night there would be a dance. The tables were cleared from the lodge, and Cas would hook up his computer to the old karaoke machine and lighting that Rey was sure came from Spencers in the late '90s, watching as it would cast rainbows of colors around the darkened room. 

Poe made a big show of asking Rey to go to the dance with him, and she even pulled off a blush—since it was technically the first time she had been asked to a dance. In Atlanta, she kept her head down and tried not to be noticed at her high school. Just one more year, and she's out of there. No one will even remember her. 

She was pulled from her thoughts by Kay, pulling her back towards the cabin to get ready for the night. Jyn put on Spice Girls, and they jumped around singing into hairbrushes and trying not to poke their eyes out with mascara wands. 

Rey talked to Clyde about the dance the night before, as she laid her head on his chest and he stroked her shoulder. They both knew that he couldn't openly take her to the dance, even though in his sleepy drawl he proclaimed that she was the only girl he wanted to dance with ever again. 

After giggling and kissing his forehead, Rey explained that the dance would be the last night she'd have with Kay and the other campers who were going home at the two-week mark. He mumbled that he understood, and Rey could tell that he was fading fast. When she tried to move to redress and sneak back up to the cabin, his large hand held her hip, and he grumbled again when Rey insisted that she needed to leave. 

There was a moment when she looked back at his sleeping form from the doorway that she wanted to tell him that she loved him, but figured that Clyde should at least be awake for it. 

Since Rey was staying for the whole month, she brought two outfits for the dances. Laying out the floral dress and the teal romper, she figured that she would wear the dress at the end of the summer, secretly wanting to look good for Clyde. So, she pulled on the romper—which could almost be mistaken for a mid-thigh dress—and slid her feet into a pair of silver strappy sandals. 

Poe was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs, and held up a flower that he picked from the field behind the cabins. She let him tuck it behind her ear and turned her cheek for a kiss. As they walked past the counselor's cabins, Clyde sat in his camping chair, plucking away at his guitar, only offering a tip of his hat as Rey passed by—but she could feel his gaze burning up the back of her thighs, and she squirmed thinking about his tongue deep in her core. 

Clyde could wait. Rey planned to have a fantastic evening with her friends. 

Even in the South, the camp was slightly progressive, and no one batted an eye at Kay and Hannah slow dancing and stealing kisses on the dance floor. Rose and Finn were doing an impression of robots attempting to waltz, and Rey giggled into Poe's shoulder. 

Poe seemed distracted though, always looking around, and Rey couldn't help but know who he was looking for. "You should be careful with him."

"What?" Poe said, finally looking back at her. 

She gave him a look of either annoyance that he wasn't listening, or incredulous to his faux ignorance. "I know who you are seeing on the nights that you ask me to sneak out."

His jaw ticked slightly. "It's none of your business, Rey."

Rey stopped their swaying and grabbed his chin. "We have known each other since we were both scared of the dark, Poe. I care about you and don't want to see you get hurt or—" she lowered her voice, "catch something."

Poe pulled his chin from her fingers and stepped back. "I have it under control, but thanks for your concern."

His tone didn't make it sound like he was grateful, and Rey watched him walk across the room to the refreshment table. Looking around the crowd of swaying bodies, she couldn't find Kelly, and seeing that she upset Poe, she decided to make a quick trip down to the bathrooms and maybe steal a second with Clyde. 

A romper was not the best choice, as she had to take it almost completely off to pee. It took her a few extra minutes to get redressed, and as she was washing her hands, she heard a very clear moan through the vents that connected the bathroom to the laundry room. 

"That's it, little girl," came the mid-toned English accent, and Rey couldn't believe that Hux was with someone else so soon after hooking up with Poe. 

Rey dried her hands a little too hard on the paper towels and stomped out of the bathroom right up to the laundry room door. It was cracked—the fucker didn't even have the decency to close the door. 

Peeking through the crack, Rey saw waves of dark brown hair and then the pale pink dress that she had watched Kelly slip into earlier. It felt strange to stand outside the door and watch—Rey's cheeks became hot from more than just anger as she watched Kelly's legs jump and Hux kiss her to keep her climax quiet. 

Having seen enough, and wanting to spare her new friend from whatever Hux may or may not be spreading around the camp, Rey slammed the door open, making it bounce against the wall. 

"What the hell, Niima?" Hux cursed, and Kelly pushed down her dress and hopped off the washer that she was propped upon. 

"Rey," Kelly said with wide eyes and orgasm pink cheeks. 

She didn't speak. Rey just narrowed her eyes at Hux as he coolly leaned against a bay of dryers behind him. 

"We were just—" Kelly looked between Hux and Rey, knowing there was no way to make an excuse for what they were doing. "You won't tell, will you, Rey?"

A snorting laugh came from behind them, and both girls turned to see Hux pop two of his fingers into his mouth and make a show of licking them clean. "She won't tell anyone. Those without sin and all…" He smirked and licked the pad of his thumb. 

Kelly looked really uncomfortable with Hux licking her come off his fingers in front of Rey, and she didn't understand what he was on about, so she turned back to her cabin-mate. "My dad would kill me. You can't tell."

Finally, Rey let her hardened gaze slide from Hux to Kelly. "I won't tell. Why don't you go back to the dance before anyone notices you are missing."

"Oh! Thank you, Rey!" Kelly jumped forward and kissed Rey's cheek before scurrying out of the laundry room. 

Not knowing where Kelly's mouth had been, Rey made a show of roughly wiping her face with the back of her hand. "So, how many is that now?"

Hux scoffed. "I don't need any judgment from you, Rey. The thin walls work both ways."

  
  
  
  
  
  



	9. Teardrop In My Eye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y’all! Do you love ReyLogan as much as I do?!
> 
> Hope all of you enjoy our soft babies, Clyde and Rey. 🥰

****

**Teardrop In My Eye**

  
  


That Sunday was a free day for all campers who were staying for the additional two weeks. Old campers left in the morning, and bus and car loads of new kids showed up just after lunch. Rey hugged Kay so tightly that the blonde complained about not being able to breathe. They made promises to keep in touch, and Kay looked forward to seeing Rey as a counselor the next summer. 

Rey knew some of the older campers who were returning, and Cabin 8 quickly filled up again. Jyn asked her to take some of the new campers around the grounds and show them the bathroom, lodge, vending machines, and campfire area where they would gather that night. 

Kelly tagged along, continually biting her lip and itching at her arms. She knew why Kelly was nervous. Rey made a promise not to tell, and with Hux’s not so veiled threat, there was no chance that she would be ratting out the ginger—as not only a man-whore—but also for messing around with sixteen-year-old campers when he was well over twenty-one. 

“I’m not sleeping with him, you know.” Kelly said once Rey dismissed the new campers and turned to walk towards the camp store. 

“Good.” Rey answered. “You aren’t the only one he is messing around with, and I’m sure your dad would be pissed if you came home from camp with an STD or knocked up.”

Kelly nodded while trying to fight back tears as she said a quiet ‘Thank you,’ before turning and hurrying back to the cabin. Rey huffed and used the last of her camp credit to buy two Dr. Pepper’s and a bag of gummy bears. Then, she was on a mission to find the hulking man of hers so she could vent and warn him about Hux. 

Of course, he kissed her in the shadows of the tree line across the field and told her that everything would be okay, and he would tell Hux to back off. Rey wanted to argue that she didn’t need Clyde standing up for her, but she also knew that he was more at risk and that he was just being the gentleman his Mama raised him to be. 

The archery’s attendance was down during the new cycle of camp, so Rey was pulled off helping Clyde out at the range. She may have cried and stomped her foot, while Clyde tried not to chuckle at her as he promised to spend more time with her outside of activities. 

Rey was asked to help with the trail ride, since more campers signed up for time with the horses. She was satisfied with the arrangement since she had not been able to spend much time in the saddle that summer. Rey still helped at swim lessons with Hux. Most of their friendly banter had turned to suspicious glances toward each other, but the cops had not come and hauled off Clyde, so she suspected that their truce was still in place. 

She didn’t mind continuing with the swim classes. Apart from meeting Clyde, one of the happiest moments of that summer was when little Brownie came up and pulled Rey toward the deep end of the pool where there were two diving boards. 

The girl looked a mixture of nervous and brave in her Powerpuff Girls one-piece as she told Rey to stand by the edge of the pool, and then her head of blonde ringlets bobbed as she trotted towards the lower diving board. 

“Ms. Rey! Make sure to watch!”

“I’m right here, B! You can do this!”

Brownie walked to the edge of the board and stood there for a long moment, and then glanced back at Rey. Her swim coach gave a thumbs up and had a beaming smile on her face, and this gave Brownie the courage to not focus on the four-foot drop into the deep water. She held her nose, closed her eyes, and then jumped. 

When Brownie surfaced, all she heard was Rey cheering. She held her breath and kicked her little legs as Rey taught her. Once her fingers hit the pool’s edge, Brownie was being pulled from the water and into a tight hug.

Rey had fallen head over heels in love with the little girl. She prayed that Brownie would return next year, and Rey could watch her grow, learn, and continue to be brave. 

* * *

It was the middle of the week, and Clyde was called into the front office. He might have been shittin’ bricks and wondering why Ms. Holdo wanted to see him. Clyde swore that he and Rey were discreet, and he had too much dirt on Hux for the other counselor to snitch on him.

His feet made too much noise on the wooden ramp leading up to the old trailer, and Clyde thought that this is what it might feel like to walk towards the gallows. Would cops be waiting for him when he came out? Rey would tell them that he didn’t take advantage. 

When he walked in, Chewie and Holdo were standing in the main office, and they—smiled. Surely they wouldn’t smile right before condemning him, right?

Right. 

“Clyde, good news!” Chewie came over and gave him a few friendly slaps on the back. 

“Good news?” Clyde parroted. 

“Bobby called from town, said your truck is done. Ms. Holdo has agreed to advance this week’s pay so we can go pick it up.”

“My truck—“ He was still coming down from the shock that he wouldn’t be taken away in handcuffs. 

Holdo’s brows creased, “You feeling alright, Clyde?”

He shook his head some and took the check that Holdo was holding out for him. “Yeah, it was a hot one out today, and don’t think I drank enough water.”

“Well, A/C blows cold in the camp truck. Go grab your things, and we’ll make a run into town.” Chewie brushed past him, and both men ducked their heads to exit the trailer. 

Clyde hustled down to his room, grabbed his wallet and hat before meeting up with Chewie in front of the lodge. He was excited about having his truck back, and before long, he was signing his third paycheck over to Bobby and had keys in hand. 

It felt nice to have the freedom of not having to rely on Hux or Chewie to get a ride into town. There were open stretches of road in every direction and new places to experience, but his heart—he suspected—would always pull him back to Rey, and at that point, Clyde wondered how the hell he was going to make it half a world away from her. 

He told Chewie that he would make some stops in town before heading back and drove towards the drug store to pick up another box of condoms. Rey was insatiable, and he did not want to be in a position where they wanted a go and didn’t have protection. He would be lying if he said he didn’t want to spend every second of the time they had left buried deep in her. On the drive back to camp, he daydreamed about her small tanned feet propped up on the dash and warm afternoon sun shining through the windshield, and got an idea. 

The third week of camp was coming to a close, which meant another field trip up to Helen. Clyde was once more called up to Holdo’s office, and he tried to be more optimistic. 

“I’m real sorry to ask this of you, but Chewie had some camp errands to run today, and I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind taking your truck up to Helen with the rest of our supplies. The camp would pay for your gas, of course.”

Clyde thought about having Rey and his vehicle in Helen for the whole day, and he couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. “It would be my pleasure, ma’am.”

“Oh, thank you so much! You are doing me such a favor. Get with Chewie, and he will let you know what needs to be packed up.”

He tipped his hat as he excused himself and had a little skip in his step as he went to find Chewie. Clyde couldn’t wait to surprise Rey with what he hoped would be the first of many dates. 

Rey dressed in her American flag bikini and slid into a pair of cut off jean shorts and a black tube top. They were going back up to Helen to go tubing, and she secretly hoped to have another relaxing afternoon under the sun with Clyde drifting in the cold water. 

As she walked out to the bus with the rest of her friends, she saw him leaning up against an older red Ford F150. He touched the brim of his camo hat and gave her a smirk. Clyde didn’t tell her that he got his truck back, and Rey was both happy that he would be able to continue on his trip after camp—and saddened because she was reminded that in just a week, they would be separated. 

The ride to Helen was uneventful, and when they got there, Holdo again asked if Rey and Clyde would take the bus to the river exit. Clyde leaned up against his truck, twirling his keyring around his finger like he belonged in an old western. “Now, darlin’. Ol’ Sheila here has gotten me through a lot, and I would be rather hurt if something happened to her.”

Rey tried to remain sober even though her lips threatened to pull into a smile. “Understood, sir. Don’t hurt Ol’ Sheila.”

Clyde laughed and shook his head at her as he opened the driver’s door and handed her the keys. “Don’t move my seat neither,” he quipped as he watched Rey’s feet search for the petals. 

They took the same dirt road down to the other end of the river and parked the bus by the picnic pavilion. As Clyde approached the truck, Rey slid over the bench seat and happily hummed against his lips when he gave her a solid kiss. “Ya ready?”

“I wouldn’t mind you wasting a little more time and kissing me again.” Rey quipped. 

“No time to waste. How long you reckon it takes to go down the river?”

“Two and a half hours, give or take. Why?”

Clyde’s face split into a bright smile. “I’m takin’ ya out on a date, darlin’.”

Rey squealed and bounced in her seat a few times before buckling her seat belt and gesturing for him to get going. They drove out of the park and a few miles west until they entered Helen. Clyde parked on Main Street, turning the truck off and rounding the front, before pulling open Rey’s door and holding out his hand. 

“Ma’am,” he drawled. 

“Sir,” Rey teased back. 

For the first thirty minutes, they walked hand in hand down Main Street, and for a moment, Rey could imagine that they were in another place and time. They weren’t kids that had to hide their relationship. They were a real couple who would go back to the home they shared, they would talk about their futures, and it wouldn’t hurt. For that small moment, they were something real. 

They looked into the shop windows, ducked into a small gallery to enjoy the art and the air conditioning, and finally, Clyde pulled her towards a little ice cream shop. 

Rey ordered a triple scoop, and Clyde got a hot fudge sundae. They sat outside, which only caused their ice cream to melt quicker, but Clyde loved seeing Rey glowing in the sun. “Hold it right there,” he said before setting his paper cup down on the table. He pulled the disposable camera that his sister gave him out of the cargo pocket of his shorts, cranked the film forward with his thumb before holding the camera up to his face, finding Rey’s smiling face in the viewfinder and snapping a photo. 

“One more fer luck,” he said, knowing that he would hate it if the first picture didn’t develop right. 

Rey smirked, and right before he took the picture, she suggestively licked up her ice cream cone, gathered white cream on her tongue and swallowed it with a giggle as he stared at her over the top of the camera. 

“I will be keepin’ that one for private moments at boot camp.”

“Good, but for your eyes only.”

“I wouldn’t dream of sharing ya, darlin’.”

They finished their ice cream and walked down the other side of Main Street. Clyde opened the door of his truck for her again, and he drove them out some ways until they found a quiet place to park. 

He made love to a beautiful girl on the bench seat of Ol’ Sheila in the late morning heat. As they drove back towards the park, Rey was dressed in her jean shorts and red, white, and blue bikini top. Her hair was blowing in the wind from the open window, and her cheeks were pink from the two intense orgasms he gave her. Clyde pulled out the camera again and, making sure that the road was clear around them, snapped another photo of Rey looking as pretty as a peach in June. 

They were sitting on the tailgate of his truck, swinging their legs, and talking about nothing and everything when Holdo came up out of the water with the first wave of campers. “Y’all didn’t go down the river?”

Rey’s cheeks flushed as she opened her mouth a few times, and then Clyde spoke in his deep drawl, “Rey wasn’t feelin’ well. Female troubles n’ all. I didn’t think it would be proper for her to be sittin’ up here all by her lonesome.”

“That was very thoughtful of you, Clyde. I’m glad you kids have hit it off so well this summer. If you weren’t going off to the Army, I would invite you to join us next year.” 

Both Rey and Clyde were trying to hide the blush that would give them away and followed Holdo to the pavilion to eat lunch with the rest of the campers before piling back onto the bus. 

* * *

The following six days were filled with slow afternoons and hurried nights. Rey and Clyde sat under their tree across the field every free hour. They would listen to the campers yelling with joy down at the pool, and he would pick yellow wildflowers to tuck into her hair. 

He would kiss her each morning under cover of the stables, and she would sneak into his cabin whenever she could get away. Clyde wasn’t a selfish man, and many nights he would watch from between her thighs as he brought her to bliss with his tongue and then hold her for as long as their exhaustion would allow. 

Clyde wasn’t sure how he was going to make it without her. He had two weeks before he had to report to basic, and he wondered about finding a hotel in Atlanta so they could spend that time together. But he knew that she had a life to get back to, and he wouldn’t make their separation any more difficult for Rey. 

It was a hot Saturday in mid-July, and that night was the final dance of the summer, which meant that the next day all of the campers would pack up to return home. As Rey applied her lip gloss, she felt bittersweet. She was looking forward to returning the next year to work as a counselor. The friends that she made at Camp Mishawaka would last a lifetime, and the guidance that Ms. Holdo gave over the years had helped Rey grow. But mostly, she was thankful for that summer and meeting Clyde.

She wore the sundress with a small flower print and her cowgirl boots. Rey wished that they could hop in Clyde’s pickup truck and go park by the lake—the memory of his warm fingertips on her skin made Rey shiver. 

Poe waited at the bottom of the stairs for her again, but her smile didn’t meet her eyes. The summer held so many secrets, and Rey wanted to run through the common area and scream that she was in love with Clyde Logan. Instead, she took Poe’s hand and let him walk her up to the lodge. 

Cas tried to mix up the music from the first dance of the summer, but there were only so many child-friendly songs. Rey danced for about an hour with her friends. Poe ditched her without saying anything, and she figured that he was off with Hux getting in one last romp, but she couldn’t fault him for it as she walked down the back stairs to use the bathroom before going to find Clyde. 

She blotted a paper towel across her forehead to pat off the sweat from dancing and then looked in the mirror. It had only been a month, but Rey felt older. She was returning to Atlanta to work for a year and then she would be on her own. For once, Rey felt like she had a future that she was looking forward to—Clyde made her feel strong, and for once, she wasn’t scared of what came next. 

As she walked out of the bathroom, someone grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the laundry room. “What the—“ she exclaimed. 

“Sorry to scare ya, darlin’.” Clyde spoke in a hushed tone and pulled her in close. 

Rey smiled up at him, “I was just coming to find you.”

They looked up into each other’s eyes for a long moment, neither one wanting to acknowledge that it was their last night together. The next day Clyde would watch Rey ride away on a bus, and he would follow the day after, both unknowing, but hoping for a future together. 

The music from the floor above traveled down the old ducts of the lodge, and it echoed around the small laundry room. _Underneath Your Clothes_ from Shakira played, and Clyde held out his hand, “Would ya care to dance with me?”

“I would love to,” she answered with a bright smile and took his hand. 

He pulled her against his chest; his arms came around her back and held her close. Her fingers threaded into the hair over the collar of his nicest button-up shirt. Rey wanted to giggle at his dress shirt tucked into a pair of blue jeans, but she knew that he was trying to look nice for her, and she loved him for it. 

Even though it was always on her mind, Rey had not yet told Clyde that she loved him, and the words burned in her throat. She couldn’t tell him in this place, where just two weeks ago she had stared down Hux and Kelly—but she would tell him that night—there was no other time. 

They swayed to the vocals. The lyrics made their hearts clench and yearn for a time when they didn’t have to say good-bye. But Rey knew that even if they could leave camp together the next day, she would have to watch Clyde go time and time again as the Army needed him away from home. As he placed kisses to the crown of her head, temple, nose, and finally lips—Rey knew that, no matter what, it would all be worth it. 

The song ended with their lips joined. Rey took his hand that was pressed to her lower back and pulled him from the laundry room. Across the four-square court and around the pool, he followed her. He stopped long enough to pick up a folded blanket that he left outside his room on the now sun-worn camping chair. They walked out into the dark and to the cluster of trees that they laid under so many times that summer. 

Clyde followed Rey behind the cluster of trees and spread out the blanket when she stopped. The grass was still dry from the summer sun and crunched under their weight as they settled on the ground. “How has it been a month already?” Rey asked. 

“If I could turn back the clock fer ya, I would.” Clyde answered and cupped her face. “I would do anythin’ for ya. Ya know ‘dat, right?”

Rey felt the burning desire in his gaze, and her eyes brimmed with tears. “I know you would, but I can’t ask for what I want. I can’t be selfish and ask you to—“ she hiccuped and couldn’t voice her need for him to stay. 

Clyde knew that he couldn’t put off the Army or where it would take him for the next four years. He couldn’t sweep her away from the shit foster home waiting for her in Atlanta—not yet at least. He couldn’t promise her everything at that moment, but he could be hers for that last night, and he let his kiss tell Rey that he was entirely hers. 

He thoroughly kissed her lips and when Rey struggled to breathe through her nose that was pressed into his cheek, Clyde moved to her neck. His thick fingers brushed the thin strap of her dress to the side to pepper her sun-kissed and freckled shoulder with his lips. There was a slight chlorine scent that clung to her skin even under the fruity smell of her body wash. 

Rey’s chest heaved as Clyde skimmed every part of her body that made her feel breathless. His large hands wrapped around her ribs, and his thumbs drew lazy patterns across her pebbled nipples, and he pulled her into his lap. She loved that they fought for control; he was always willing to let her lead even though his mouth and hands turned her into a mess of arousal and desire. 

Needing more of him, Rey slid the other side of her dress down and pulled her arm from the strap, letting the floral fabric fall away from her chest and expose her small breast to the night air. Cicadas sang in the trees behind them and covered Rey’s moan as Clyde dipped and took her nipple into his mouth. 

He would give this woman pleasure for the rest of his life and die a happy man. Clyde wanted to discover every way to make her moan and groan and scream his name, and not in secret, or rushed rendezvous under cover of night. He wanted to kiss her on Main Street in Danville, hold her hand in the Grocery Castle, introduce her to Mama and Mels—he wanted everything with Rey. 

But they only had the night, and he would not waste it. 

Her hands worked the buttons on his shirt. Once it was over his shoulders and pooled at his back, Rey had her hands all over his warm chest. Her fingers threaded through the dusting of hair on his chest and trailed up to cup the back of his neck. Rey pulled to bring his lips back to hers. She tasted like fruit punch, and he like Dr. Pepper. 

Rey’s dress bunched up around her hips as she settled deeper into his lap. His cock was hard and pressed up against her thigh as she rolled in closer, sucked down his groan and yanked at the curls at the back of his head. Rey pulled her other arm free of the dress, and it hung around her middle as she guided his mouth back to her chest. 

She reached into the front pocket of his jeans and took out the condom that she knew would be there and placed it on the blanket next to them before going to work on this belt and the button of his jeans. Clyde’s hands roamed up her thighs and gripped at her hips to pull her in closer and rub him just the right way. Rey pulled away from him and rocked up on her feet and stood over him. 

The tight middle of the dress clung to her hips, but Rey gathered the skirt and smiled down at the man with dark hair rumpled from her hands. Without having to ask, Clyde reached up and hooked his fingers into her panties and ever so slowly pulled them down her tanned thighs. Rey bent down and kissed him as she stepped one foot and then the other out of her underwear. 

Clyde ran his hands back up her legs, and Rey nudged at his hip with her foot. “I want this off. I need you.”

He kicked off his boots and then shifted from side to side to push his jeans and boxers down his legs. When he was bare, Rey settled back into his lap, kissed him, and groaned into his mouth when she was able to rub her slick pussy against his cock. She blindly reached for the condom and tore into it. “I need you,” she repeated and rolled the latex down between them.

Over the weeks, they had sex a half dozen times, but every time Clyde had taken the time to help Rey be ready for him. He would bring her to climax with his fingers or his mouth so that she would be slick and malleable. Before he could offer, she ran the head of his cock through her fold and looked for it to catch on her entrance. 

“Wait—“ he heaved out with a long breath.

Rey whined and rocked against his hold, but he softly chuckled and kissed her nose and then her lips. “Just let me get this out, then ya can have yer way with me.”

His words made Rey pause, and she took a deep breath. She ran her fingers into his hair and dipped her face down to lightly kiss his lips. “You have my undivided attention.”

Clyde cupped her cheek and brushed back the fly-aways by her temples before straining into her deep hazel eyes. “I wish I could stop time and spend forever here wit-cha—but I know tomorrow we have to go our separate ways.”

Rey felt her eyes sting with tears, and she pressed her lips together to prevent them from quivering as she nodded and gave him a sad smile. “I don’t want the summer to end either.”

He kissed the pain from her expression, and her core pressed against his cock and they groaned. He needed to tell her before they both exploded with need. “Rey, darlin’—“ he panted between breaths when they parted. “I’ve never felt this way towards no one else—and ya have to know that—“ He swallowed, and his Adam’s apple bobbed. “—that I love ya.”

A real smile bloomed across Rey’s face, and tears of joy slid down her cheeks as she pulled his face back to hers. “I love you, too,” she spoke against his lips but pulled back to look into his fathomless eyes. Rey wanted to watch his face when she repeated the words, and he would know unquestionably that they were true. “I love you, Clyde Logan.”

His fingers slid into the hair at the nape of her neck and pulled her face back to his. Their kiss was needy, and it declared their love over and over again. Rey sank upon him like they were two pieces coming together to make something right and whole. 

She moved slowly in his lap and felt a burn with the stretch she missed when they were apart. His hands tried to cover as much of her body as was possible. They ran hot over her shoulders and down her back, gripped her hips and cupped her rear, pulling Rey deeper and bringing them closer. 

Clyde finished shortly after her core tightened and fluttered around his cock. His face was buried in her neck, and he couldn’t help but drawl out how much he loved her and thanking God for bringing her to him. Rey pulled his lips up to her as she felt him twitch out his release. 

They laid together for a long while, pressed together, the blanket shielding them from the summer swarms of mosquitoes. The moon was full, and Rey wished upon a shooting star streaking through the dark Georgia sky. Clyde could almost believe that they were back in Boone County and that Rey was the woman he came home to each day. 

With arms wrapped around her small body, Clyde pulled her chest flush with his and kissed her soundly. Rey threw her leg over his hip and whimpered when she felt his ready cock brush her clit. “Please tell me you brought another condom,” she panted against his lips. 

Clyde reached over Rey, where his clothes lay and handed the second condom to her. Rey made quick work of sliding it over his length and still on their sides, worked him to her entrance. 

He kept their bodies so close that some may think that he was trying to take Rey within him so that they never had to part. But on the last night of a summer camp that would forever change his life, Clyde Logan made soft love to the girl of his dreams, and knew that he would forever hold her in his heart. 

  
  



	10. Mountain Mama

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Y’all! Only one more chapter to go!  
> I tried something with the formatting of the letters. If it is just horrible to read, let me know and I will fix it, but all of the text in the letters is below the photo.

**Mountain Mama**

Rey tried not to cry the entire time she packed up her trunk. She never felt that summer had gone by so quickly in her eight years attending the camp. But this time was different—Rey wasn't just leaving Camp Mishawaka. She was leaving behind Clyde, who felt like he owned a piece of her heart. 

Rose, on the other hand, was crying. She blabbered about having to go a whole year before seeing Rey again, and how much she hated her high school. Rey hugged her friend and reassured her that they would chat on IM all the time, and the year would fly by. 

Chewie came around and picked up the trunks from Cabin 8, and Rey walked up to the lodge with Rose to wait for Mr. and Mrs. Tico. They pressed their heads together to hear the CD playing in Rose's Discman. 

Rose got picked up before lunch, and then the campers taking the bus were given a ten-minute warning to use the restroom and check the cabins for any items left behind. Knowing the bus ride would be long and hot, Rey did take the opportunity to pee, but then found herself wandering around the pool. 

Her hand gripped the doorknob and turned before she could think better of it, and she only had a few seconds to process Clyde's surprised expression before they were in each other's arms and kissing like they wouldn't get a tomorrow. 

"Yur gonna miss the bus," Clyde whispered between kissing Rey's sweet lips. 

She didn't want to tell him that she didn't care. Rey couldn't tell Clyde that she wanted to forget about senior year and that he could not show up to boot camp. Her eyes filled with tears thinking about never seeing him again, and then tried not to feel foolish for falling so hard for a guy that she'd only known for a month. But as her heart felt like an unseen force was squeezing it, Rey knew what she felt was real. 

Rey stepped back half a foot but refused to release her hands from his shirt. She wanted to be angry at Clyde for making her fall in love with him. She wanted to believe that they had a future. She also knew that she had to let go. 

"You'll write to me?" She asked, hopefully. A few days ago, she jotted down how he could stay in contact with her through the mail, phone, email, and IM. 

"I promise," he swore. "As soon as I know the address for Fort Benning, I will send it to ya."

Rey nodded and then rocked up on her tiptoes to press a long kiss upon Clyde one last time. She cried when she pulled away from him. She cried when Amilyn offered her a job the next summer as a counselor, and when Chewie gave her a huge hug goodbye. 

Rey cried as she watched Camp Mishawaka and the man she loved disappeared down a dusty road. 

* * *

A week later, she received a postcard in the mail. It had a scene from Daytona Beach, and she smiled, thinking how Clyde finally made it to his original destination. She flipped it over and read the short note:

_Rey,_

_Even the Florida sun isn't as bright as your smile. I wish you were here with me._

_I report to Benning in five days. I'm sick with nerves._

_I told Mama and Mels about you, and I'd reckon that they love you as much as I do._

_But that's impossible since I love you with every fiber of my being._

_Clyde_

Rey cried at his sweet words, and giggled when she noticed his writing got smaller as he ran out of room on the card. He barely had enough room to sign his name at the bottom. 

* * *

Rey returned to her job as a cashier at the grocery store. She had three weeks until school started, and she wanted to save as much money in the upcoming year. She would age out of the foster system a few weeks before graduation, but state laws said that Plutt couldn't kick her out until she finished high school. 

Returning to school for her senior year was somber. By marking the days on her calendar, Rey knew that Clyde was already a week and a half into boot camp. A Google search informed her that he wouldn't be allowed to write home for a few weeks, so she wasn't expecting a letter from him for a while. 

By the third week that they were apart, Rey stopped crying herself to sleep. Plutt was still awful, but she filled her days with swimming at the Y, working after school, and hiding away in her room or the library. 

Mid-September, she finally received a letter from Fort Benning. She raced up to her room and carefully opened the envelope so that she could save the return address. 

_7Sept2002_

_Rey,_

_Darling. They keep us so busy, and I am so tired, but that doesn't stop me from missing you every minute of every day. You have to promise to love me even though the Army shaved off all my hair, and Drill Sergeant Mills nicknamed me Ears2 (Ears was already taken by Lawrence from Tennessee). I have included a photo to give you a chance to run while you still can._

_I keep a photo of you in my footlocker—the one where you were looking so pretty sitting in my truck. We can't have any personal items out since they can call for an inspection at any time._

_Boot camp is hard. Some guys ain't cut out for it and got sent home. Growing up with someone as bossy as Mels has prepared me for Sergeant Mills, I reckon. I get why they are hard on us. Break us down to build us back up, and all that._

_It's a lot of running and walking with our packs and taking apart our weapon just to put it back together. I've learned to stay in the middle, never first, and Lord help me never to come in last._

_Well, I got to head to chow. I hope this letter finds you well, and I hope you know that you fill all of my dreams. Please write back if you can._

_Your,_

_Clyde_

  
  


* * *

  


_9/14/2002_

_Clyde,_

_Thank you for the photo, and I still love you even though they shaved off all of your beautiful hair. As for Ears2, I would have been disappointed if you had any other nickname, but you must know that your ears are (one of) my favorite parts of you._

_I know that being in the Army means so much to you, and I am proud of you for following your heart. You will succeed at anything you put your mind to! The way you talk about Mels almost makes me scared to meet her one day._

_On my front— school sucks, and work is work. Plutt leaves me alone for the most part, but he has started counting down the days until graduation when he can kick me out. I'm thankful that I'll work at the camp next summer and get my feet on the ground before going out on my own._

_I've been reading up on the Army. Do you know when you are graduating or what your MOS is going to be? Where will you go for AIT? It would be amazing if you could stay in Georgia, but I have also been watching the news and fear you will deploy soon. I worry about you but know that you are doing what is right._

_I dream about you all the time. I'm trying so hard to remember what your lips and your hands feel like. I didn't know I could miss someone so much._

_I love you and will write to you as often as I can._

_-Your Rey_

  
  


* * *

_24Sept2002_

_Darling, you have no idea how good it felt to hear my name during mail call. I knew then that you had not given up on me and my horrid buzz cut._

_Perhaps I have been around too many guys, or I miss you so very much, but I would love to hear about all the other parts of my body that you enjoy. My mind has been full of all the beautiful parts of you, and remember how you feel and, if I dare say, how you taste._

_Graduation from Basic will be 5Oct, but I will be staying at Benning for AIT for infantry. I hate to worry you more, but I suspect that I will be shipping out for Iraq by mid-November. This war is so new, and we don't know what to expect, but we are training hard to have a good chance of all of us coming home._

_It's almost lights out, and I hate to cut this one short, but Sergeant Mills will have my ass if he catches me up._

_All of my love is yours._

_-Clyde_

* * *

Rey felt terrible for not replying to Clyde, but she had so much to do on such short notice. She talked to her manager and switched a shift with another cashier. Next, Rey used the school library computer to check bus schedules and bought a ticket that she could pick up at will call. 

She even took a trip to Target and bought a new dress. As she sat on the Greyhound and fiddled with her skirt's hem, Rey hoped that she was doing the right thing. They had a summer romance and exchanged a few letters. That didn't mean that they were soulmates, but her heart hurt every time she thought about not seeing him, and come what may, Rey knew she was doing what she thought was right. 

The bus ride took a few hours, and Rey took a cab from the depot to Fort Benning. The parking lot was full of families who came to see the recruits graduate and become soldiers. She found a lone seat near the back of the bleachers that overlooked a sports field. Rows upon rows of cadets in their dress greens and black berets were standing at attention. 

Finding Clyde in the ranks was not difficult due to his size. He looked stoic, but handsome as he focused on the speeches that leadership gave about the graduating class and what it means to move forward as part of the brother and sisterhood called the US Armed Forces. The cadets all recited the oath to protect their country against threats both foreign and domestic, and Rey's heart was so full of pride. 

A heaviness hung over the ceremony. It was a certainty that each of these young men and women were going to war. Around Rey, mothers cried, and fathers comforted their partners. Young women held babies and cooed to 'wave to daddy.' As silly as it might sound, Rey felt like she was a part of something. She loved someone willing to give his all for his country, and she, like all those around her, was left wondering if the person she loved would come home to her.

The ceremony ended with a echoed shuddering breath from the audience, and Rey tried to keep her eye on Clyde as families and cadets found each other. She lost him a few times and wondered if his mom and sister could make the trip down from West Virginia. 

She saw him head back to a grouping of buildings and yelled his name. When he didn't turn, she called out louder. "Clyde!"

He turned, and when their eyes met, the broadest smile spread over his face. The next second, he was running towards Rey as if his life depended on it. When they collided, he knocked the wind out of her, but Rey didn't care because he held her and kissed her. 

"Darlin', what are you doing here? When ya didn't write back, I figured ya wanted nothin' to do wit me."

Rey was smiling and crying at the same time. "I wanted to surprise you, silly. There is no way I'm giving up on you."

They kissed again and heard a few catcalls from fellow cadets. "How did ya get here? When do ya gotta be back?"

"I took the bus, and I have to be back at the depot at eight." Rey looked around her and saw families and cadets getting into cars. "Are you allowed to leave?"

Clyde nodded. "We have a few hour pass to go out to eat and the like." He chewed on his lip. "Would ya like to go ta dinner with me? We can get a taxi? Ya are lookin' mighty fine, and I'd love ta show ya off."

Rey looked up at him through her lashes. "Dinner would be okay—but I passed a few hotels on the way in and was wondering…"

She couldn't help but giggle as Clyde took her hand and started to pull her up a small hill to the parking lot, where there was already a line of taxis waiting. Always the gentleman, he did remember himself and opened the car door for her, kissed her hand as they sat together, and gave the cabby instructions to take them to the Hilton.

Still being a minor, Rey waited off to the side as Clyde paid for a room. They kissed in the elevator, and once in the room, Rey asked him to slow down. "I want to look at you." His hat sat tucked under his belt, and his uniform was neatly pressed. "You look so handsome, Clyde, and I am so proud of you."

He blushed and rubbed his hand along his shaved head. "Even without my hair?"

Rey stepped up to him and ran her hand over the close-cut dark velvet hair. "Well, I can't grab onto it anymore when you are using that amazing mouth of yours, but I guess that is why God made your ears so big."

"Ya think ya's funny?" He asked and lunged at her. 

Once Rey was breathless from his kisses, Clyde stood back up and carefully removed his jacket, shirt, pants, and shoes. He didn't want his uniform too wrinkled before the next inspection. When Rey reached for the hem of her dress, he stopped her. "Ya are the best graduation gift I could ask for, and I want ta unwrap ya myself."

Clyde undressed her with care and used his plush lips to kiss every inch of her warm skin. He groaned at her taste as he licked at her core, and loved the feeling of her nails raking over his scalp. He kissed the inside of her thighs as he worked her down from her orgasm, and shifted his erection in his standard-issue boxers. "Shit, darlin'. I don't have anythin'. Didn't think I would be needin' 'em."

Rey bit her lip and tried to catch her breath from the high that her man could bring her with just his mouth. "I got on birth control as soon as I got home from camp. So if you wanted—"

In a second, he was on her, kissing her lips and loving how she licked at her taste. Rey pushed down his boxers and held him close with her legs wrapped around his hips. As he slid into her with no barrier between them, they both hissed at the stretch and wet drag of her core. "Not gonna last long this first time."

"Don't care," Rey panted against his collarbone. "Just need you."

They made love as many times as they could in those few hours. They showered together, and Clyde moved within Rey with her back pressed to the cold tile. They ordered a pizza up to the room, ate naked in bed together, and then joined again. Rey was pleasantly sore when she started to dress. 

Clyde called them a taxi and escorted Rey to the bus depot. They kissed under a single street light and whispered love and promises while his tears joined hers and ran down her cheeks. He gave a sad wave as the bus pulled away from the station, and with a constricting feeling in his chest, Clyde returned to base. 

* * *

  
  


_11Nov2002_

_Rey,_

_We are shipping out tomorrow. The Army has trained me to the best of their ability, and now it is up to me and the graciousness of God to keep me safe. I can't really say in this letter where we are going yet, but I know that I will be in Iraq for the next 9 months. I will write to you as soon as possible and let you know where you can send letters. You have to know that getting these notes from you has been the highlight of my life since we parted._

_I'm sorry this note is shorter, but we have to pack up our gear and be reading to depart at 0530._

_I love you so much, Rey. I've already stuck your picture in my Kevlar. Seeing you at graduation and holding you has given me the strength I will need to get through the next few months. I will write to you as soon as I can._

_Missing you already,_

_Clyde_

* * *

  
  


_24Dec2002_

_Merry Christmas, Darling._

_I can't tell you much about where we are or what we have been doing, but our unit has been in Iraq for about a month. I spend most of my days on marches through the city, escorting Officers to talk to this guy or collect papers from that business. The locals are hesitant around us, but I would be too if guys with M16 slung across their chests walked around town._

_Iraq is hot, and there is so much sand. It gets into everything. We are constantly cleaning our guns, and I don't think I have ever had to drink so much water. I change my socks a few times a day with how much we sweat, but Doc Stevens says we got to avoid boot rot, even here in the desert._

_I included the APO address for you to write back, but since we don't have a home base yet, it may take up to a month to get anything you send me. I don't say that to talk you out of it, but just so you don't think I have forgotten about you if it takes a while for me to reply. Sometimes I think the only thing that keeps me going is the thought of you._

_I've been thinking about my future with the Army and maybe going for something that would keep me stateside for a little longer. Some of the old-timers say that it's not uncommon to be deployed again after only six months home. My tired body and soul might need more time than that._

_They are calling us for dinner, and I'm excited about getting a real meal for Christmas and not just another chili MRE._

_With each day that passes, I think I love you more and miss your bright smile in this shit storm of a war._

_Only yours,_

_Clyde_

* * *

_01/13/2003_

_Clyde,_

_Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I heard that soldiers like to get care packages, so I hope you enjoy what I've sent. I researched what was good to send, so I hope you can use baby wipes and pop tarts. :)_

_I worry about you every day. I'm stuck in this weird mix of wanting to watch the news to see what is going on over there and not wanting to be fully aware of the danger you are in. All I think about is you coming home safe._

_As for me, school is school. I'm getting a little nervous about time going by so quickly. All I've wanted for the past seven years is to be out of Plutt's "care," but now that being on my own is a reality, I'm starting to get scared._

_I mean...I don't want to assume that you will come back and we will be...something, and I also don't want to have to rely on someone else. I don't know what I'm saying. I'm just scared of the unknown. My problems must seem so stupid compared to what you are going through every day._

_I'm sorry to trouble you with any of this. I miss how it felt when you held me like I was safe and made me feel like I could do anything. I miss your sweet nothings, and I miss that mouth of yours. I dream of our time in the field almost every night._

_I won't be presumptuous and ask you to come home to me, but I will ask you to stay safe and just come home._

_With my whole heart,_

_Rey_

* * *

_31March2003_

_Darling. Thank you so much for the package. I hate to admit, but I haven't had a real, honest to goodness shower since we got here, so the baby wipes are like gold. I traded a packet of pop tarts for a Dr. Pepper, and it brought me right back to laying with you in the Georgia sun. When I close my eyes, I can count the freckles across your cheeks. I miss you something fierce, my love._

_Your problems do matter, and I wish I were there to hold you and tell you that everything will be okay. Because you must know that my only thought is to come home to you, I know that you do not need me to take care of you, but my greatest hope is that when the day comes, that you will want to be with me so that we can take care of each other. Sometimes I think that the only thing keeping me sane is the thought of finally being able to wake up next to you._

_I keep telling myself that I can't think in terms of "if," If I will make it home, If I will ever see you again. I've lost friends over here. We are so young and had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Sometimes we don't even know what we are fighting for. Some days it feels like we are liberating people, but then comes the thought of, but at what cost?_

_When I close my eyes, I'm just thankful that I still see your bright eyes and lovely smile and not the city burning around me. I'm counting the days and push through each of them to get back to you._

_Yours, now and forever,_

_Clyde_

* * *

_04/21/2003_

_Firstly, I have to say that I don't know what I did in a past life to deserve you, Clyde. You have never judged me or thought less of me because of where I come from. Thank you for seeing me for who I am and for the potential of where I will go. Or where we will go, because I want the same thing that you do. I want us to be partners for as long as you will have me._

_I also forgive you for trading the pop tarts for a Dr. Pepper. If only gummy bears wouldn't melt into a glob of sugar in the desert heat. I miss our time under the trees. It seems so long ago that we were falling in love and everything felt...easy._

_Graduation is just over a month away, and I feel like a shadow is falling in behind me. My birthday is in a few weeks, and then three weeks after that, I will be on my own. Rose's parents were nice enough to let me stay with them until camp starts, but I will need to figure out what to do by mid-July._

_I know you won't be stateside until August, and have no idea what is in store for you when you do get back, but I would love to see you. Do you want to see me? Will you need time? Do I rent a place by Benning? I need you to tell me what to do. I don't want to be one of those crazy girls that you can't shake._

_I don't know why I can't stop doubting what we have, but I have to know that you feel it and want it too._

_I love you and miss you,_

_Rey_

* * *

_09May2003_

_Happy Birthday, Darling! Thank goodness you are finally legal. ;)_

_I hope that asshole Plutt isn't too hard on you in the next few weeks. If he is, you can't blame me for wanting to beat his ass. That is very nice of Rose's parents to offer to help you._

_I know you don't mean to doubt us, but I want to reassure you that I want you probably more than you will ever want me. I feel like the luckiest guy stuck in this hellhole because I have you waiting on me. I will have some R &R after I get home so we can figure out everything together. Just get somewhere safe, and I will call you the second I touch down. _

_Happy Graduation, also! I am so proud of you. You have worked and gone to school, you have saved for your future, and I don't think there is anything you can't do. I know the military life can be hard, and I don't ever want to hold you back from anything. So if you want to go to school...or travel...I won't ask you to stay with me, but I will always be waiting._

_It might be a while until I can write again. We are going to be on the move for the next month. I saved the address for the camp, so I will send my next letter there for you. Tell Holdo and Chewie hey for me._

_Don't be scared of what comes next. I have hope and faith, and we will make it out on the other side of this together._

_I love you and be brave._

_Clyde_

* * *

  
  


Rey wasn't surprised that everything she owned fit into her camp trunk and a few cardboard boxes. She hugged Rose outside of Plutt's auto garage and thanked Mr. and Mrs. Tico again for taking her in for a few weeks as they piled her belongings into the back of their SUV. 

She got offered Paige's old room, but the girls preferred to treat the next few weeks like one long slumber party. Rey continued to write to Clyde even though she was holding the letters until she heard from him again and knew where he would be. 

It felt strange not taking the bus out to Camp Mishawaka, but it was fun to sing along to the radio with Rose while Mr. Tico begged to change the station. Rose was in Cabin 8 again, and it would be her last summer as a camper. Rey was assigned to Cabin 2 with the 10 to 12-year-olds. She was young enough to be still "cool" but old enough that some of the campers were in awe of her. Dani was in the same cabin, and they would be co-counselors for the summer. Neither woman brought up Clyde, and Rey had no desire to out herself. 

The weeks dragged on, with no news from Clyde. He said that he knew the camp address and would send any letters to her there. Rey started to fear the worst had happened. She didn't know if long-distance girlfriend counted enough to the Army to notify her if something happened to Clyde. She hoped that at least his family would try to reach out to her. 

The night of the final dance at the camp found Rey sitting alone in the cabin crying. Clyde told her that they would figure out what to do next. It wasn't that she couldn't go out on her own—it was that she didn't want to. She felt a little ridiculous thinking that 'starting over' at eighteen seemed impossible, but doing it alone and not knowing if the man she loved was alive or—she couldn't even think it—it seemed like too much. 

Instead of joining the dance and remembering that last year it was the first time Rey told Clyde she loved him, she started to pack her belongings and stayed up too late worrying about what to do next. 

She waved as campers were picked up and started to gather near the bus. She was about to ask Mr. Tico to load her trunk into their car when she caught a glimpse of red and green out of the corner of her eye. The faded yellow bus circled the parking lot, and there he was. 

Leaning up against his old pickup truck was Clyde, in his BDU with his cover slung low on his forehead. Rey burst into tears at the sight of him and took off running. She didn't stop until she was flung against his chest and sobbing into his shoulder. 

"Darlin'," he cooed and rubbed her back, not knowing how else to comfort her. 

"You didn't write," she sobbed. 

"I know. I'm sorry. It's a long story."

"I thought you were dead!"

"I'm right here, Rey. I'm right here."

After holding on to him for another long moment to make sure that he was there, Rey slid down his body and took a step back. "I was worried sick!"

"I know. I was too, not bein' able to contact ya. Will ya let me explain? Walk wit me?" He held out his hand.

Rey nodded, but didn't take his hand. Clyde pulled two cold bottles of Dr. Pepper out of the cooler in the truck bed and followed her. She walked back to Rose and hugged her friend. "Go on without me. I'll find my way."

Rose looked shocked. "How long has this been going on?"

Rey blushed, and her lips turned up at the corners. "Since the moment I laid eyes on him." She hugged her friend again, promised to text, and then turned to Clyde, tilting her head to ask him to follow her. They both knew where they would end up. 

Past the pool, in between Cabins 8 and 9, out through the field, and around the outcropping of trees was their place. 

Clyde was already sweating in his long-sleeved jacket, and as he looked at Rey in her shorts and tank top, he took off his jacket and spread it on the sun cooked grass for her to sit. He lowered himself next to her, but felt that he would be rejected if he tried to reach for her. 

Rey folded her arms across her chest, "So talk."

Taking off his hat, he tucked it under his belt and rubbed at his head, a nervous tick he developed when he had hair to run his fingers through. "When we start boot camp, we are assigned a buddy. It's someone that will go through AIT wit ya and ya deploy with. My buddy was Jeremy Watkins from right here in Georgia."

"Was?" Rey asked, with her brows pinched together in concern. "Is he…"

Clyde looked up, "No—well—" He sighed, and tried again. "I told ya that our company was bein' moved, and when we got to our new station, there was an attack. Watkins got hit, pretty bad, too. They knew that I was rotating home in a few weeks, so they sent me home with him, too—I don't know, keep up his spirits, so he didn't give up?"

Rey's anger melted at seeing the deflated posture of the man she loved. She took a moment to look at him, and Clyde was tired, his eyes were sunken, and his skin was tanner—but also yellow somehow. His head hung, and his shoulders slumped. Rey knew that he had seen things during his deployment that she would never understand. "I'm sorry, Clyde," was all she could think to offer. 

"The Docs patched him up, but I heard them talking about how he's never goin' to be deployable, and that the Army will most likely kick him out. I took him home from the hospital and settled with his family before returning to Benning and startin' my R&R. I got here as soon as I could, Rey. Ya have to know that I would never make ya worry. When we got evac-ed, we had to leave everything."

Rey bit her lip. "I read some blogs from military families, and I understand now what they were saying about the 'not knowing.'" She looked up into his dark eyes. "Clyde, I was so scared."

He wanted to cry and promise that he would never hurt her like that again, but he also knew that the only way to fulfill that would be never to see her again—and damn him for being selfish and wanting to keep her always. "I know, darlin'. I can only say how sorry I am." 

This time when he reached out, Rey accepted his hand and let him pull her into an embrace. He kissed the top of her head and felt her tears fall on his forearm. He drew in a deep breath and rolled up onto his knees while setting Rey back on his jacket. "After seeing what happened with Walkins and not bein' able to get anyone to contact ya, it got me thinkin'—well I had been thinkin' this since the first moment I kissed ya, but now I'm able to really say it and not just hope that one day we might be able to…"

Rey giggled. "Clyde. You're rambling. What are you trying to say?"

He took in a deep breath and straightened his posture, but stayed kneeling in front of her. Sweat dripped down his back and collected on his palms. He swallowed thickly and looked down at the most beautiful person he had ever laid eyes upon and knew this was right. 

"Clyde—" 

"Will ya marry me?"


	11. My Home Far Away

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of you might have noticed the jump in chapter count. I couldn’t wrap up Clyde and Rey’s story in this chapter, so we get one more chapter of these love birds.  
> There are more letters at the end of this chapter, so the formatting is the same as in chapter 10. 
> 
> TW: There is a death in this chapter, so go to the end notes if you need to know who it is before reading. Check the end notes for any other triggering themes. 
> 
> Thank you as always to the lovely MyJediLife for the beta and for making me to a chance on ReyLogan! ❤️
> 
> I hope you enjoy and please leave me some love. I could really use the motivation as I finish up the next chapter of TCC. 😘

**My Home Far Away**

Rey wasn't sure she heard him right, and blinked against the high Georgia sun. "What?" She asked dumbly. 

Clyde scratched the back of his neck and felt sweat drip down his temple. "I asked if ya would marry me."

A smile bloomed across Rey's face, and she threw herself into his arms and kissed his plush lips. "Yes, Clyde! Of course, I will!"

They kissed, and laughed, and cried together under the shade of the trees in their spot. Clyde cupped her face in his large hands and brushed her tears with his thumbs. "Now, I'm not just doin' this cause I don't think you can’t be on yer own. I know ya can. I just don't reckon my life is worth much witout ya in it."

Rey kissed him again, slow this time, and looked up into his fathomless eyes. "We are going to take care of each other, remember?"

He nodded and moved his hands down to her shoulders and then to her hands. He ran his thumbs over her fingers, and his gaze dropped to her left hand. "I didn't have no time to get ya a proper ring," he said, more to himself with thoughts of letting down his girl. 

"I don't need—" Rey started. 

Clyde grabbed the Dr. Pepper bottle next to them, removed the cap, and then pulled at the red ring. Rey followed Clyde’s intent and shifted until she was also on her knees in front of him, and bounced excitedly. 

"Ya really want me?" He asked, holding both her left hand and the soda ring. 

Rey was never so sure of anything in her life. "Yes. Today and forever, Clyde." 

He slid the plastic ring onto her finger, and they both laughed at how large it was. Clyde kissed her hand before pulling his dog tag chain from beneath his shirt. The smaller chain—the one that would be taken if he was KIA—he separated it and threaded her ring onto it so that he could always remember that he had an angel waiting for him back home. 

They walked through the camp hand and hand, finally able to flaunt their relationship. As they approached the lodge, Chewie looked shocked, and Holdo was smug. 

"Did you know about that?" The large man asked the camp leader. 

"I had an inkling."

Chewie let out a low whistle. "Well, at least our Rey got herself a good one."

Holdo smiled and tried to blink back tears. "She sure did."

* * *

Clyde loved seeing Rey sitting on the passenger side of his truck. Her tanned legs were propped up on the dash, and they sang along to a Garth Brooks song. 

"So, where are we going?" Rey asked as they turned on to the main highway out of Canon. 

"I'm taking you to Disney World, darlin'."

Rey shrieked with happiness and threw herself across the cab at her fiancé. The word felt foreign in her mind, but as Clyde looped his arm around her and lovingly chastised her for jumping on him while he was driving, Rey knew that she would never tire of claiming her man. 

He took the long way down to central Florida. Along the east coast they stopped in St. Augustine to watch the sunrise over the Atlantic. Clyde marveled at how beautiful Rey looked with her toes dug into the sand, and he snapped a few pictures with a new disposable camera. 

They spent two days in Orlando, kissed in front of the castle, rode Pirates, and stayed in Shades of Green. This was both their first time to the most magical place on Earth, and they experienced it with childlike eyes and hearts so full of love for each other and the glowing promise of their future. 

Next was the drive back up to West Virginia. They stopped along the way at a few roadside farms and got a hotel in North Carolina so they could make love all night in privacy. It was a late July morning when they got back on the road, and Clyde was anxious to not only surprise his mama and Mels with being stateside a month early, but also with his pretty wife to be. 

* * *

Crowded interstates turned into country roads, and Rey started to squirm on the truck's bench seat. The past week was like a dream, but Rey knew that their life couldn't be a continuous vacation and nights indulging in each other's bodies. She was about to meet his family, and Rey hoped that they would accept her and not cast her aside as her parents had done years ago. 

"What's botherin' ya, darlin'?"

She chewed on her lip for a moment. "What if they don't like me?"

"Impossible," he said with a smirk, and placed his hand on her bare thigh before squeezing it. 

They passed the 'Welcome to Boone County' sign, and Rey took in a large calming breath. 

It was late afternoon, and the warm summer air rushed through the open windows of the pickup truck. Rey watched the small town pass by and was amazed that there were no skyscrapers in sight. 

He took her through downtown Danville, which consisted of a row of shops along Main Street. He pointed out the barber and hardware store, the mayor's office, and the town's lone attorney. 

Another few miles down the road, they were pulling into a large parking lot of the—she squinted up at the sign, "What do we need at the Grocery Castle?" 

Clyde threw the truck into park and rubbed at his close-cut hair. "She wouldn't shut up in her letters about wantin' to meet ya." 

Realization dawned on Rey and she asked, "Mels?" 

"The one and only," Clyde answered while pulling the key out of the ignition and opening the door with an incline of his head, silently asking Rey to join him outside. 

Rey had no way of recognizing Mellie Logan, she could only go by how Clyde described his sister, but she didn't have to wait long before a petite brunette exited the store, maroon apron in hand and screeching with joy as she ran across the parking lot. 

Rey shifted nervously next to Clyde as the young teen was making a beeline for them and hollering her brother's name. Then Mellie's dark eyes moved, and so did her outstretched arms. 

"Hell's bells!" Mels said eagerly as she hugged the other girl around the neck. "You are actually real! We were taking bets on whether Clyde was makin' ya up or not!"

Rey chuckled and looked up at Clyde, who was blushing deeper than the strawberries they stopped to pick in Florida. "Is your brother one for making up imaginary girlfriends—or rather fiancées?"

Mels' eyes went large as she looked over the girl that seemed to put a spell on her tender-hearted brother. "Y'all are gettin' hitched?" She reached down and picked up Rey's left hand, but frowned at her brother when she saw a bare hand. "Clyde Logan Logan. How are you gonna ask her to marry ya without a ring?"

"Mels," Clyde said with some warning to his tone.

'What? Ya were brought up better than that."

"We have a ring," Rey said with a smile, and reached over to pat the red soda bottle ring next to the dog tags resting on Clyde's chest. 

Mellie huffed and rolled her eyes, but had to admit that she had never seen her brother so happy, and could tell that even though she would never think about getting married right out of high school, Rey looked at Clyde like he made the sun and moon move just for her. "Well, we better get movin' so you can go on and surprise mama. She's been countin' down the days and will fall over to see ya brought Rey wit ya too."

Clyde smiled as his sister sat between him and Rey on the bench seat of his truck. Mellie was asking Rey so many questions that he almost wanted to chastise her for overwhelming his little lady, but Rey seemed to be just as eager to learn everything about the Logans and their life in Boone County. 

Mama Logan was just as ecstatic to not only see her son home early, but also that he had done right by his girl and brought her home to meet his family. Clyde was hugged and kissed on his shaved head, having to duck down so his mama could reach it. Rey was held at arm's length and looked over before being called the prettiest thing this side of the Mississippi.

Rey excused herself and asked to be pointed towards the bathroom. Once she was down the hall of the double-wide trailer home, Mels sprung into action. "Clyde asked Rey to marry him, but he didn't give her no ring, 'least not one to be showin' off or nothin'."

"Mels, I told ya I didn't have time to get nothin' fancy."

Mama was smiling wide at her two youngest bickering in the kitchen, and she had to admit that she missed having all her kids under one roof. She walked to the other side of the trailer and opened her old jewelry box, before coming back out to the kitchen. "I want ya to have this, Clyde. It was granny Logan's, and I think you should give it to Rey."

Clyde looked down at the ring that his granny wore for over sixty years. "Shouldn't it go to Jimmy? He's the oldest."

Mama scoffed. "Your brother may have knocked up Bobbie-Jo, but he ain't gonna put no ring on her finger, and getting that boy to settle down would be like trying to ride a tornado." She reached for her son's left hand and turned his palm up, and placed the ring in his hand. "But you and Rey got somethin' special and Lord willin', this ring will be on the finger of another Mrs. Logan for sixty more years."

That night as they cuddled on his double bed, he apologized for the hard mattress and the thin walls of the trailer. Rey snuggled in closer to him, knowing that they had made love on the twin cot in his room at camp, but also whispering against his warm skin that she had never felt more at home than right there with him. 

The next day Clyde took Rey around the town and the surrounding area. They picked up a few things from the Grocery Castle, and next to the creek that he spent his childhood swimming and fishing in, Clyde dropped to one knee and presented Rey with his grandmother's ring. 

Rey cried, and again accepted his offer of marriage, but made him swear never to throw away the Dr. Pepper ring that still hung around his neck. He, of course, agreed and whispered his undying love against her waiting lips. 

They ate their picnic and made love in the bed of his truck as the sun started to set over the West Virginia mountains. The stars were so bright, and Clyde was happy to hold his girl in his arms and point out the different constellations that his daddy showed him when Clyde was a boy. 

It was two days later, and Mellie talked Rey into spending the whole day together. The teen knew that Rey would rather be off making eyes at her brother—Clyde was shipping out in a few days, but Mels had always wanted a sister and wasn't going to waste any time getting to know Rey. The girls were in Mels' room, flipping through last year's yearbook, and Mels was telling Rey all about the boys that finally had the balls to ask her out now that both her big brothers were out of town. 

Clyde sat at the kitchen table, filling out some forms that he and Rey picked up at the courthouse the day before, and smiled to himself at how Rey seemed to fit perfectly into their little family. He was anxious for her to meet Jimmy the next day since his older brother was working a job a few towns over. 

It wasn't that he was afraid that Rey would prefer Jimmy over him, but it seemed that whenever Jimmy Logan was around, trouble seemed to follow. 

The house phone rang, and Clyde heaved a sigh and lumbered across the kitchen to pick up the wall-mounted phone. The voice on the other end was somber, and Clyde tried to take in each word. His body stood rigid, and for some reason, he couldn't even try to process the emotions flowing through him. 

He thanked the person on the other end of the phone and hung up before moving down the hallway and standing in the doorway of his sister's room. 

"Jesus, Clyde! You scared us, standin' there all creepy like!" Mels held her hand over her heart and tisked at her brother.

On the other hand, Rey saw the look on Clyde's face, the same one he had when telling her about Watkins getting hurt, and crossed the small room to touch his arm. "What is it? What happened?"

He looked down at Rey, and her eyes were pleading with him, but he felt like his head was in a fog. Clyde shifted his gaze to his sister, "Mels, put some shoes on. We need to get to the hospital."

"The hospital?" Mels twisted her face up in confusion.

"Yeah—somethin' happened to mama."

Cynthia Logan had collapsed at work and was found to have no pulse when the EMT’s got to her. The ER doctor would tell Clyde that it was a massive heart attack, and that his mama passed on quickly and with little discomfort. This piece of information was supposed to give Clyde solace, but he was too busy trying to console his sister to worry about his feelings. 

Rey made sure she was always touching Clyde in some way. Her warm hands seemed to act as an anchor that kept him tied to this Earth and wouldn't allow him to drift. He wanted to withdraw into himself, and was not able to shed tears. 

Without breaking, he told the nurse which of the two funeral homes in Danville he wanted his mama taken to, and ushered Rey and Mellie back out to the truck. The drive home was quiet except for Mels' sniffles as she cried into Rey's shoulder. Clyde called Jimmy when they got back to the house, and he would be expecting his brother at the house the next morning. 

* * *

Jimmy was more subdued because of his mama passing, but he still gave Rey a tight hug and a fat kiss on her cheek to welcome her to the family. He didn't seem upset about his soon to be sister in law wearing his granny's ring. Deep down, he knew that trying to stay with Bobbie Jo would be a mistake. 

If there was any silver lining to his mama dying, it was that Clyde got two more weeks of leave to handle affairs and settle his sister before having to report to Fort Stewart in South Georgia. 

Mellie—what the hell was he going to do with his baby sister? 

Clyde sat at the kitchen table as Rey exited Mels' room. She closed the door softly and then walked down the hall to wrap her arms around his broad shoulders. "She wants to stay with us," Rey said as if she could read Clyde's thoughts. 

He pulled Rey down into his lap and nuzzled his face into her neck. When he finally spoke, his voice was deep and rough. "I don't know where I'm gonna be. I got at least a year before they send me for Rangers, which will mean training all over the country and then most likely back over to the sandbox."

Rey was quiet for a long moment before she stroked Clyde's buzzed hair and kissed his forehead. "Then she will stay with me—and I will stay here."

Clyde looked up at Rey with concern. "Ya just turned eighteen, barely out of high school yurself, and I can't ask ya to take on my teenage sister."

"You aren't asking, Clyde. I'm telling you that is how it has to be." Rey smoothed out the worry lines on his forehead with her fingertips, wishing that she could take some of the weight of the world off his shoulders. "You are my family now, which means she is my family, and we have to stick together."

He let out a long sigh and dipped his head back down, resting his forehead on her breast bone and tried to ponder how much he loved the woman in his lap, and how the hell he ever deserved her. 

The next Tuesday found Rey and Clyde standing in their Sunday best in front of a worn-down yellow brick building. 

"You sure you want to do this now?" Rey asked. "We can wait."

He reached for her hand and squeezed it, loving the feel of the modest ring against his fingers. "I wish I could give ya everythin' ya wanted for yur weddin' day, but there is so much to do before I leave again."

Rey squeezed his hand in return. "Clyde, I don't need anything fancy. I just need you."

They kissed in front of the courthouse then walked in for their appointment with the justice of the peace. Thirty minutes and $120 later, they were man and wife. 

Three days later, they laid Mama Logan to rest next to her husband in the cemetery behind the Baptist church. Half the town turned up, offering both condolences and congratulations and giving comments about what amazing lady Cynthia was, and how Clyde had got him a pretty little wife. 

Wife—Rey thought as she saw the simple silver band around Clyde's finger. For a girl that never felt like she belonged anywhere, Rey was sure that she was always meant to be at Clyde Logan's side. 

The next week was full of activity. They piled into Clyde's pickup truck, and they drove the four hours into Ohio to Wright-Patt Air Force Base. Clyde added both Rey and Mellie as his dependents, they were given brown military ID cards, and Clyde explained how TriCare and base access worked. 

Back in Danville, Mels was back at work, and Rey was sitting in the passenger seat of the truck talking about what she would do with the trailer and for a job when they pulled up in front of a quaint home on Pine Road.

"What are we doing here?" Rey asked as she saw the 'For Sale' sign stuck in the front yard. 

"I don't want ya and Mels way out in the boonies in that old trailer." He turned the key to kill the engine and looked down at his hands in his lap. "I always wanted to buy my mama a proper home. They pay us real good to go overseas. The least I can do is get my sister and my—" he looked up at Rey and swallowed the lump in his throat, "—my wife somethin' nice."

Rey knew not to argue with him, and sensed that her kind and thoughtful husband felt he had to do something for his family. So with tears brimming in her eyes, Rey bit her lip and nodded. In the course of only a few months, Clyde provided her not only with a family —but also a place she could call their own and where they could set down roots. 

It was a small three-bedroom and two-bath wood home built in the 1940s. It needed some work, but the bones were good, and Rey was already planning. 

Clyde signed for the house and handed the keys over to Rey the day before he had to leave for Fort Stewart. Rey reassured him that she and Mellie could get everything moved over, and they would be fine until he had leave again and could come home. 

He stood on the front porch of their house, knowing that he couldn't stay, and chewed on the side of his cheek. 

"Hey," Rey said softly. "We knew that this wasn't going to be easy even before everything with your mom and then taking on Mels." She smoothed out his worry lines again and lifted onto her tip-toes to kiss his lips. "But it will be you and me-- together—whatever life brings. We can get through anything."

Clyde nodded and dipped down to give his wife a lingering kiss. 

"Alright. That's enough of that!" Mels cut up and walked forward to give her brother a tight hug. 

"Take care of her," Clyde whispered to his sister. 

Mels smiled up at her brother with tears in her eyes. "She's a Logan now. We will take care of each other."

Clyde left his pickup behind, having already heard Rey's plan to fix up the house, and instead loaded his duffle into the trunk of his mama's 1976 Grand Prix. It was mid-afternoon in August 2003, and Clyde drove away from his family once more for his obligation to the Army and his country. 

* * *

_19Sept2003_

_Darling,_

_They have me doing grunt work at Stewart, but I'm up for promotion and will test for E3 shortly after the first of the year. They are already talking about sending me on a TDY to Texas. First Sergeant Williams says that I'm a sure thing for Rangers if I can make Corporal._

_I'm trying to stay stateside for as long as possible cause if I pass Ranger School, that will mean a little extra money I can send home to take care of you and Mels, but it will also mean that they will expect me to deploy on the next cycle._

_I should have some leave coming up, and I might even be able to make it home around Christmas. It sure would be nice to dance with you in the living room with the pretty twinkle lights coming off the tree._

_Give Mels my love, and I will try to call when I can. I still keep your picture in my wallet and the ring around my neck._

_I miss you, and love you._

_Clyde_

* * *

_January 5, 2004_

_My loving husband,_

_It was so lovely to have you home just before Christmas. I hope the tree and my dancing lived up to your expectations. Thank you for the extra set of dog tags. I will keep them and your dad's horseshoe ring safe until you can come home and wear them again._

_Mels won't shut up about the boots you bought her in Texas. She says she's going to run off with a cowboy one day and live on a big ranch. Lord help me if that girl doesn’t have big dreams._

_I think it is so exciting that they are sending you to so many classes! I'm thinking about looking at the community college over in Foster. Maybe when I have more of the house done, that will be my next goal._

_Jimmy comes around for dinner every few weeks with Bobbie Jo. She looks like she is ready to pop any day now. They fight like cats and dogs. Bobbie Jo even said that I was lucky not to 'put up with' you every day. I cried myself to sleep that night missing you. I would fight with you all the time if it only meant that I could see you, and then I would kiss you and tell you that I love you and that I'm being ridiculous._

_I miss you already and can't wait until the next time you come home._

_Always yours,_

_Rey_

* * *

_22April2004_

_Happy Birthday, darling! I hate that I have to be away for it, but I hope you like your gift. When I told the guys that I was getting my wife a power drill set for her birthday, they expected me to be getting divorce papers any day, but they don't know you as I do. You can do anything you put your mind to, and I am so proud that you are making that house into our home._

_Anytime you want to go to school, you don't even have to ask. I never wanted to hold you back, and I know that taking care of Mels is a big undertaking, but you are so smart that I know you can do anything!_

_I'm sorry that Jimmy and Bobbie Jo are giving you trouble. I'm also sorry that I missed Sadie being born. Thank you for the picture, and thank the lord that little girl looks like her mama._

_I have some good news! I'll be able to come home in August. Figured that we could actually celebrate our first anniversary together. I'll test for E4 shortly after that, and then it's on to Rangers. First Sergeant Williams still has his eye on me._

_I know that being away for so long was not what you wanted when you said you would marry me, but I promise that I am trying to get home to you as much as I can._

_I love you more and more every day,_

_Clyde_

* * *

  


_July 4, 2004_

_Happy Independence Day, handsome._

_I am so excited about you coming home that I almost can't sleep! I can't wait for you to see what we've done to the house and also for you to meet Sadie._

_She's so small, Clyde. Even after all these months, I didn't know how little babies could be. Bobbie Jo drops her off with us sometimes, saying that Sadie doesn't let her get any sleep. That baby is a perfect angel for Mels and me, so we don't mind watching her from time to time._

_Mels is finishing up her one class for summer school in a few weeks. The teachers were easy on her this year on account of your mom and you being gone, but that is not an excuse for her missing gym almost every day. At the beginning of the summer, she was mad at me for not sticking up for her with the school, but I think she understands that nothing worth having comes easy._

_Danny at the hardware store will let me start working part-time so that I can take a few classes in the fall. I got my application from the college and have to turn it in before the start of August. Wish me luck!_

_I'm counting the days until you are in my arms again._

_Your Rey_

* * *

_November 11, 2004_

_Clyde,_

_I'm glad that you have settled back into Benning, and you have no idea how nice it was to hear your voice when you called last week. I am so proud of you for making E4 and getting selected for Ranger School. You are the strongest person I know, and I know you will succeed at anything you put your mind and heart to._

_Mels is pushing back some, but that is to be expected with her being a senior and thinking she knows everything. It's nothing that I can't handle, and she will come to understand that I'm just trying to keep her safe._

_Keep me posted on how Ranger School is going and send me the addresses of the next phases so I can write to you._

_I love you, and we can't wait for you to come home in the spring._

_Your smitten wife,_

_Rey_

* * *

_15Dec2004_

_Light of my life,_

_Thank you for your letter and the photos of all the updates you are making to the house. Also, a very special thank you for the photos that I have added to my private stash._

_We have moved onto the mountain phase and are at Camp Merrill. I've included the address along with the address for Camp Rudder in Florida._

_It's colder than a witch's tit in the mountains and even though I was raised in Boone County, being out in the elements of the Georgia mountains is something else. Going to Florida sounded nice and warm for Swamp Phase, but they have already briefed us on the freezing temperatures of the panhandle during this time of year._

_I guess there is a reason only 40% of us will make it through. We have to focus, and it is hard on our bodies and minds. I haven't had more than 4 hours of sleep a night since we started._

_At night when I'm curled up next to Rosenberg, I'm dreaming that it's you that is keeping me warm and not a 5'9 dude from Arizona._

_We leave for Florida in a few days, so send your next letter to Camp Rudder._

_I love you with all my heart, and trust me that Rosenberg has nothing on you, darling._

_Always yours,_

_Clyde_

* * *

_February 14, 2005_

_I was so thrilled about your visit last week. It was the best early Valentine's gift ever! I know that you are leaving for Iraq again soon. Please send me the APO address when you know what base you will be at._

_During your first deployment, I wasn't really sure what we were or what the future held, but now as your wife, with a taste of what our lives could be like here in Boone County, I am so scared, Clyde._

_I know that you are tougher, wiser, more alert now that you have your Ranger training behind you, but I just can't fathom you being in a place where you are being shot at._

_Can I ask a favor? Don't tell me what you are getting into over there. Lie to me, tell me you never go outside the wire. Maybe then I can sleep at night._

_I don't mean to say all of this to make you think I don't believe in you and what you are doing, but I just need you to come home to me, Clyde. I need you to come home to us._

_I love you so much, and I pray every night that God will protect you and bring you home safe._

_Always and forever your faithful wife,_

_Rey_

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mama Logan dies in this chapter. 
> 
> Also, Rey mentions in one of her letters that she is worried about Clyde getting shot at on deployment. 
> 
> This is a military heavy fic...next chapter we have the aftermath of Clyde’s injury, so FYI for the PTSD tags.


	12. I Should’ve Been Home Yesterday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, y’all. This is the end of the line for my very first ReyLogan fic. Thank you MyJediLife for opening my eyes to the sweet man that Clyde is and encouraging me to write this fic. I loved every minute of it and would love to write more ReyLogan in the future. 
> 
> In this chapter we have Clyde’s injury and some of his time in the hospital, so be prepared for some feels! 
> 
> I just hope that I have done this sweet couple justice. ❤️

**I Should’ve Been Home Yesterday**

Days turned into weeks, and then into months. Rey spent so much time at the hardware store getting items to fix up their home that the owner, Mr. Jenkins, offered her a job. Clyde encouraged Rey to go to school or learn whatever trade she wanted, but she was content to work part-time for a while. 

Taking care of a teenager was more work than Rey expected. Mels didn’t mean to be difficult, but Rey couldn’t allow the sixteen-year-old to run wild. She may have even threatened to send Mels off to Jimmy when she caught her new sister trying to sneak a boy into the house. 

Clyde deployed to Iraq with his new unit of Rangers in the spring of 2005. Rey was scared out of her mind to see him go, but also knew that in ten months he would be back with them for two months of R&R. Clyde promised to make up for missing Mels’ graduation and finally take Rey on a honeymoon. 

Rey crossed days off the calendar and watched as spring turned to summer, and then fall. Christmas without Clyde was hard that year, but Rey and Mels made the most of it by eating with Jimmy, Bobbie Jo and Sadie. 

It was late in January, and the sun was out on the rare but warm winter day. Rey was up on a ladder taking the lights off the eaves of their modest home. She heard a car door close behind her, and she tried to shade her eyes from the glare off the windshield when she saw two men in uniform. 

Her heart clenched, and she was thankful that she had enough sense to grip on to the ladder and not fall ten feet to the ground. Even with her legs feeling like jello, she was able to get down and wipe her sweating hands on her jeans. 

One of the men had a cross sewed over his name on his uniform’s right side, and he spoke first. “Are you Mrs. Logan? Mrs. Rey Logan?”

Rey felt like the air was ripped from her lungs, and she nodded. Tears slid down her cheeks and her diaphragm spasmed with a need to breathe. “Is he dead?” She asked plainly. 

“Mrs. Logan, I’m Chaplin Lewis—“

“Is my husband dead?” Rey repeated. 

The Chaplin pressed his lips together, and pulled a paper out of the Bible that he carried. “At 0848, local time, Corporal Logan’s convoy encountered an IED on it’s way to the airfield. He was injured and taken to Germany for stabilization.”

Rey wanted to rip the damn paper out of the Chaplin’s hands and just see for herself if her dear husband would be coming home to her. 

Chaplin Lewis folded the paper and tucked it back into his Bible. “We have been sent to escort you to Walter Reed Military Hospital in Maryland, where your husband is expected to arrive later today.”

“So, he’s alive?”

“For now, yes. But he is fighting for his life. We have the best doctors and surgeons waiting for him, and we thought it would be best if you were there when he wakes up.”

* * *

The two men followed Rey into the house, and stood in the living room while Rey called out for her sister. 

Mels came around the corner and saw the men in uniform, and her gaze snapped from them to Rey’s tear-stained face. “What’s going on, Rey?” She asked with a lump already forming in her throat. 

“Clyde’s been hurt, but he’s going to be okay.” Rey tried to sound convincing. “I need you to go get dressed and pack a bag. We need to get to the hospital.”

Both Rey and Mels moved on autopilot as they threw clothes into duffle bags and dressed in warm clothes. When they stepped back into the living room, the other officer, Lieutenant Corelli, reached out to take the bags from the women and followed them out of the house. 

Rey locked the house and walked down the front stairs. “Ma’am, would you like us to drive you?” Lt. Corelli asked. 

“No, thank you. I will follow in the truck.”

The Lieutenant nodded and stood by the truck as Rey opened the door and stepped back so the officer could place the bags behind the bench seat. The five-hour trip took them six with the snow and icy roads. For the first hour, Mels talked non-stop. Rey was thankful for the distraction—because her mind was already thinking the worst.

It was almost sunset when they arrived in Maryland. The black Ford sedan with government plates pulled over into a gas station, and Chaplin Lewis approached the truck. “Would you like to check into your hotel, Mrs. Logan?” 

“Where is my husband?”

The Chaplin flipped open his phone. “The last update we have is that he arrived at the hospital about an hour ago and was taken straight to surgery.”

“I want to go to the hospital then.”

“Ma’am, it will still be hours before you can see him.”

Rey tried to hide her bottom lip trembling. “If my husband dies, I want to be there. Take us to the hospital.”

“Of course,” the Chaplin answered before walking away to get in the lead car. 

It was another ten-minute drive to the hospital, and they left the vehicles in the parking garage. Chaplin Lewis walked with Rey and Mels into the hospital, and helped them find the wing that Clyde would be taken to once he was out of surgery. 

Chaplin Lewis handed Rey a folder. “Here is the information for the Fisher House, where you have lodgings. It’s about a five-minute walk from the hospital. There is a map of the grounds and the contact information for Chaplin Tam, who works on Corporal Logan’s ward. Make sure to update your contact information with the nurses so they can reach you if you are outside of the hospital.” 

Rey nodded and looked down at the papers. 

“On behalf of the United States Army, we are very sorry for the stress that is being put on your family, and we are thankful for your husband’s service to this country.”

Mels started to cry, and Rey put her arm around her sister before thanking the officers for their help. The women made their way to a nurses’ station, where they provided their names, and Rey gave them her cell phone number as Chaplin Lewis suggested. They were ushered to a waiting room with uncomfortable chairs and a ten-year-old TV playing reruns of Seinfeld. 

Sometime in the night, Rey drifted off, but woke with a start. She was dreaming of Clyde in their field at camp, and he was calling her name. Her heart was racing, and as she wiped the sweat from her brow, she heard it again, but far off. 

“Rey!”

“Clyde,” she whispered. 

She was out of her chair like it shocked her and running towards the nurses’ station. She didn’t see the nurse who checked them in—it must be after shift change—but then she heard him again and was frantic to get down the hall. 

“Miss! You can’t go down there,” said a nurse perhaps ten years older than Rey. 

“I have to—“

“It happens all the time. They call out for their buddies that are left behind.”

“No! You don’t understand! I’m Rey. That is my husband, Clyde Logan. I need to see him! Now!”

“Oh! Let me check the chart.” 

The nurse’s name tag read Tasha, but Rey didn’t wait around for her to check the chart because she was already off running again. 

His room wasn’t hard to find since he was yelling at the top of his lungs. His voice sounded different, raspy and raw, but Rey knew it was him, and if he was hollering, then that meant he was alive. 

She skidded to a stop against the door frame and looked into the room, but nothing could prepare her for what she saw. 

“Ma’am, you can’t be in here,” a man in blue scrubs was at the bedside with another nurse, and they were messing with the IV. 

Finally, Tasha caught up. “I tried to stop her. Says she’s his wife.”

“Rey! “Clyde said weakly as he saw her standing across the room. 

“I’m here,” she said, and moved to his bedside.

“Rey—“ he slurred, and then his eyes closed, and his head fell to the side. 

“Clyde!” She yelled and looked at the medical staff standing next to her. 

“We were scared he would rip out his IV and stitches. We were already pushing the sedative when you walked in.” The man in scrubs pulled off his gloves and held out his hand, “I’m Dr. Powers. You must be Mrs. Logan.”

“I am,” Rey mindlessly shook the doctor’s hand as her gaze roamed over her husband’s body. There were tubes and bandages everywhere. Half of his face and part of his head showed pockmarks, stitches, and taped gauze. She remembered Chaplin Lewis saying it was an IED, so she suspected that they would be working on getting all the shrapnel out for a while. 

But what drew her focus the most was the bandaged stump where Clyde’s left hand used to be. She started to weep—not because her husband was no longer whole—but because even though he went through a horrific event, he was still alive. 

“Would you like to step out, and I can tell you about Corporal Logan’s injuries?” Dr. Powers asked. 

Without taking her eyes off, Clyde, Rey answered. “If it’s all the same, I would rather stay.”

Dr. Powers nodded. “From what I understand, your husband was on his way to the airfield to come home when they encountered an IED. As you can see, he has lost his left hand, but we were able to save most of the arm. He has shrapnel along the left side of his body, but his eyes look good, so we aren’t expecting any visual impairment. He has some cracked ribs and bruised organs from the blast. Also, a TBI—“

“A what?” Rey interrupted. 

“A traumatic brain injury, from not only the concussive wave from the bomb, but also being hit in the head by debris. A TBI could mean nothing, or this could mean behavioral or functional issues. We won’t know until some of the swelling goes down, and he can get with PT/OT.”

There was a knock on the door, and the group turned to see the nurse, Tasha. “There is a young lady in the waiting room asking to come back.”

“That’s my sister—his sister,” Rey tripped over the relation, having formed a familiar bond with Mels over the past few years. “Tell her not yet,” Rey said. “I need to prepare her before she sees her brother like this.” Rey looked back over Clyde’s broken body and wondered what she was going to tell Mellie.

Rey walked back to the waiting room and told Mels what Clyde looked like, and what had happened. She asked if the eighteen-year-old wanted to see Clyde, and Mels nodded with tears in her eyes. Rey felt it was best that her husband was asleep, because he would be cross at her for worrying his sister like this. 

Mels was scared to cross the room initially, but the nurse assured her that Clyde was sedated and wasn’t in any pain. “You can touch him, but just avoid his left arm.”

The young girl draped herself over her brother’s sleeping body as best she could with all the wires and tubes, and wept as Rey rubbed comforting circles on her back. Rey felt numb. Her mind was sluggish, even though she was trying to think about too many things at once. She watched the slow rise and fall of Clyde’s chest and thanked the Lord that at least he was still here. 

The hospital staff assured Rey that Clyde would be asleep for a few hours, so Rey decided to make their way to the Fisher House and check-in before it got too late. She left Mels and the truck at their accommodations and made the five-minute walk back to the hospital. 

She sat, ate, and slept at his side. The staff brought in a chair that reclined enough so she could lay flat. The pillow was stiff, and the blanket worn, but she drifted off to the steady sounds of Clyde’s heartbeats through the monitor. 

It was still dark when she woke to Clyde, mumbling her name. It took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the brightly lit equipment, but Rey woke fully when she heard the bedsheets rustle, and her husband croak out her name. 

“Clyde,” she said urgently as she shot out of her chair and pulled the cord to click on the light above his bed. “I’m here, Clyde. I’m right here.”

He blinked a few times, adjusting to the light. “Where am I? Are my friends okay? Why does everything hurt?”

Rey leaned over the hospital bed and brushed her hand over his close-cut hair. “You are in the hospital. There was an explosion. I don’t know about anyone else, but you were hurt, Clyde.”

He groaned and tried to shift his stiff body. “I’ve missed you—“ he said as he reached up his left arm to brush the tears from her face. His expression went from groggy to alarmed, and he yelled, “Where is my fuckin’ hand?”

“Shhh, Clyde. You need to calm down. You got all these wires and tubes coming out of everywhere. It will be okay, I promise, just calm down.” Rey was frantic to get him to focus on her instead of the gauze wrapped stump. 

With wide eyes, Clyde reached for his chest and aggressively patted his sternum. “Where’re my tags? Yur ring?”

Rey had gone through his personal effects when she returned to the hospital and pulled the two chains from beneath her shirt. “It’s right here, Clyde. You kept it safe for me.” Two sets of dog tags, the red soda ring, along with the horseshoe ring and Clyde’s wedding band hung between them. She tried to scrub the blood from Clyde’s tags, but red was caked into the indentations and rolled metal. 

He looked relieved, and Rey wondered about his brain injury as he seemed more concerned about the rings rather than his hand. His eyes started to glaze over, either from the drugs or the pain, and he drifted for only a second before he jerked awake. 

“I gotta go. My guys need me. Gotta get Murphy outta there!”

Rey tried to soothe him again and pressed down on his shoulders to try to keep him in bed. He startled at her touch and brushed her hands away. She thought he would pull out his tubes for sure, and Rey pressed the nurse call button. “Clyde, you can’t get up. You’re hurt. You can’t!”

The nurse rushed in and pulled another syringe out of a locked cabinet in the room. She pushed the drug into his IV, and Clyde’s movements became less aggressive. 

“No! Don’t! I gotta get Murphy! He’s bleedin’ out! I have ta go back!”

Rey sobbed at Clyde’s bedside. She couldn’t fathom what he had gone through, and knew that his battle wasn’t over. He would be facing years of both physical and mental therapy, prosthetic fittings, and learning how to function without a left hand. He would grieve his life before—because now there was only after. The Army would no longer want him, he would never again fight side by side with his brothers, and Rey tried not to worry about her husband losing more than just his hand in the Iraq desert. 

She saw the struggle ahead of them, but she also remembered kisses in the barn and sneaking out late. She remembered slow dancing in the laundry room and fleeting touches under the oak trees. 

Rey remembered fireworks over the lake and his warm skin against her, and she knew that no matter what hell awaited them during his recovery, she would be steadfast at his side, with enough love to heal his wounds. 

* * *

Clyde spent over a month in the hospital. He kept asking when he would be fit for duty again. Rey always waited until she got back to her room at the Fisher House to break down. She knew that no matter what prosthetic they fitted Clyde with, he would never deploy again. But she also cried because, after everything they’d been through and how scared she was at losing him, Clyde wanted to go right back to the place that almost killed him.

The doctors and nurses would appease him, saying he should focus on getting stronger, and they were sure someone from command would be around to answer questions about ongoing service. 

Sergeant Mills from Benning came up to see Clyde, as did First Sergeant Williams from Stewart. A few of his instructors from Ranger school visited as well. They all shook Rey’s hand and told her what a fine soldier Clyde was. One day an older man in a perfectly pressed dress uniform introduced himself as General Brado. He awarded Clyde the Purple Heart Medal and thanked him for his service and sacrifice for their country. 

Clyde asked the General what his chances of staying in and going overseas again were. The General smiled, but it did not reach his eyes, and he too encouraged Clyde to focus on getting better. 

A few soldiers from Clyde’s Ranger company came by and gave him the heartbreaking news that two of their guys died in the attack. Clyde promised to work hard in physical therapy so he could ‘get back out there.’

Rey couldn’t show anyone that she cried every night. 

When most of his superficial wounds were healed and updated scans confirmed that the blast caused no permanent brain damage, they sent Clyde home. He was on medical leave for another few weeks, and would receive wound care at home. Once his arm healed, he would have to report back to Stewart and await the Army’s decision. 

Mels offered to stay home and help with her brother, but Rey encouraged her sister to start cosmetology school. Clyde was also of the mind that he didn’t need to be watched after. 

In the hospital, he met with a few psychologists and a psychiatrist. Rey was always ushered out of the room for these meetings. No mental health follow-ups were recommended with his aftercare, and Rey knew that her husband had lied to them. If he told them about the nightmares, the way he would call out in his sleep, or move so much that he pulled the sheets from the corner of his hospital bed—they would have known that Clyde was struggling. 

Things didn’t get better when they got home. Clyde wouldn’t leave the house and jumped every time he heard a car backfire or a cabinet slam in the kitchen. He even grabbed Rey one night when she tried to wake him from a dream. He started sleeping on the couch after that. 

Clyde spent two months at Fort Stewart. They started fitting him for a prosthetic hand, but also handed down the decision to medically retire him. Clyde tried to fight it, but there was no denying that he couldn’t deploy with only one hand. 

The Army—a place where Clyde found a purpose and felt like he fit, didn’t want him anymore. He was angry for a long time after that, refused to open any mail from the government, and missed his appointments at the VA. A few weeks after he got home Rey was thrilled that Clyde started to get out of the house, but became worried when she got a call from Earl to come pick her husband up from The Duck Tape Bar after Clyde had about five too many. 

He continued to sleep on the couch, even with Rey insisting that it was unnecessary and that she wanted him to come to bed with her. Frequently he wouldn’t even bother putting on the prosthetic, saying it wasn’t good for nothing, so why bother. There were days when Rey was scared to leave him alone. He barely talked to her or Mels, and she started reading up on PTSD and depression. 

This behavior went on for months, and she begged him to talk to someone, but he insisted that no one would understand, and he didn’t need some shrink’s pity. Earl served in Vietnam and assured Rey that he would keep an eye on Clyde. His generation had seen too many veterans who were forgotten and left to deal with war traumas with drugs or drink. 

One Thursday evening, Rey stood in the kitchen, cutting vegetables for dinner when she heard the screen door slam shut and then the heavy boot-falls of her husband. She didn’t expect him to come up behind her, slide his arms around her middle, and kiss her head. Clyde continued to be distant, and even though it broke her heart, Rey tried to give him time. 

She heard him sink into one of the chairs at the kitchen table and finally looked over her shoulder at him. “What have you got there?” She asked of the papers that were wrinkled from the tight grip of his right hand. 

He wouldn’t look up and meet her eyes—just stared blankly at a spot on the floor. Rey put down the knife and wiped her hands on the apron tied around her waist. Her bare feet made a peeling sound as she crossed the linoleum floor to stand before her husband. “Is that from the Army?” She asked, and craned her neck to look at the papers. 

The only movement Clyde made was the slight lifting of his arm to hold the papers out to her. Rey smoothed out the paper some before reading over it. A lump formed in her throat, and angry tears burned in her eyes. “What is this?” She held the divorce papers under his downturned face. 

Clyde shifted his mouth, chewing on the words that he didn’t know how to express. Still not able to look at his wife, Clyde faintly spoke, “Ya don’t deserve this, Rey.”

Rey crossed her arms; the divorce papers tucked next to her side. She clenched her jaw to keep from yelling at him. She knew it would do nothing but shut him down. 

He could feel the weight of her stare and shifted his temporary prostatic, “Ya should be with someone whole, that ya don’t have to look after and tend ta.”

“You are whole, and we promised to take care of each other, remember?” Rey ripped the papers in half and slammed them on the table, hating that Clyde’s body jumped at the sudden sound. 

“I can’t even hold ya proper. I’m not good for nothin’. Got nothin’ to offer the likes of someone like ya.”

Rey crouched down so that she could try to catch his eye. “I don’t care if you don’t have your hand, and I’m sure it would feel wonderful to be held by you, if you would just try or let me touch you.” She reached out to place her hand on his left arm and sighed when he pulled away from her. 

She stood and paced in front of him. “I don’t know what I have to do to convince you that I never stopped wanting you!” Reaching behind her, Rey picked up the kitchen knife and held it to her left arm. “Do I need to cut off my hand, too? Would that finally make you believe me? Cause I would rather have you than my stupid hand!”

At the sight of a knife pressed against the tanned skin of Rey’s arm, Clyde sprung into action and grabbed her wrist with his right hand. “Don’t. Please.”

Tears finally spilled from Rey’s eyes as she looked upon Clyde’s worried face. “I love you. I will never stop loving you. You can’t push me away when things get hard.” She pulled the knife away from her arm, and it clattered back onto the cutting board. 

Whether it was from relief or pure emotional exhaustion, Clyde slid to his knees once the knife was out of Rey’s hand. He held onto the material of her apron as if it was his only lifeline, and his prosthetic pressed across the small of Rey’s back. He buried his face against her middle, and as his wife ran her fingers through his hair, he broke. 

  
  


* * *

Clyde went to the VA after that. He started seeing someone, but refused pills. His social worker was a Marine, and while they didn’t compare traumas, they did connect over stories of war and camaraderie. 

Rey joined a support group and talked to other spouses about how to best help Clyde adjust and process. She learned how to help Clyde ground himself after triggering events and avoid over-stimulating him and his anxiety. She even attended some of Clyde’s sessions at the VA—said she was there to keep him honest since, at times, he would downplay his symptoms. 

She knew that the Clyde she fell in love with at summer camp was not the Clyde Rey was married to now, but she loved him all the same. He was a little harder and had a tough time expressing himself and his emotions. They took their time and learned to be vulnerable around each other again. Clyde let her touch his bare arm and they started to make love again after some trial and error. 

Instead of spending all his time at The Duck Tape drinking, Clyde got himself a job and learned to bartend one handed. Mels was finishing up beauty school and already had a job lined up at Danville’s only salon. Rey took a break from school to be home with Clyde, but soon found herself retaking classes, and she loved to come home each night and tell Clyde about everything she learned. 

About a year later, Old Man Tuner offered to sell The Duck Tape to Clyde. With his retirement from the Army and a steady disability check from the VA, Clyde made a decent down payment on the bar and got a loan for the rest. 

Rey was worried about him working all those late hours and being around alcohol, but she would spend many evenings sitting at the bar doing homework and watching her husband slowly find a purpose again. 

He remained a quiet man, but now when he smiled at her, it reached his eyes. He would hold her and kiss her, and Rey lived to pull her husband into bed each night. Clyde put his whole heart into everything he did, saying that others didn’t come home from the war, so the least he could do was try to honor them by being a decent guy. 

Clyde would give more than he received. In the dark of their room, he would admit that he was always scared that Rey would realize that he was no good and would leave him. Rey would hold him to her chest and run her fingers through his, once again, long hair, and promise that she wasn’t going anywhere. 

Another year came and went. Clyde still ran the bar, and Rey was taking a short break from her nursing degree. She was exhausted, but still woke in the middle of the night. Her husband was not in bed beside her, but the sheets were still warm, and the door to their room was cracked. 

She shifted out of bed and tiptoed out of the room and down the hall. Mels moved out a few months ago and lived in a little apartment closer to town. Rey avoided the floorboards that she knew would squeak and heard the low tone of Clyde’s voice coming from the home’s second bedroom. 

“No reason to fuss now. We got to let her sleep.”

Rey leaned up against the door frame and watched. 

Clyde sat in an old rocking chair in the corner of the room. His chest was bare, and cradled in his left arm was their newborn daughter, Georgia Mae. 

They were both scared but excited when Rey found out she was pregnant. Sadie was too young to know what it all meant, but the family was happy that the cousins could grow up together. 

After Rey gave birth, Clyde wouldn’t hold his daughter. He was sure he would drop her because of his missing hand, or he was scared that he wouldn’t be able to connect to her. He still struggled with his emotions and continued to see his therapist monthly. 

When they came home from the hospital, Rey sat her husband down and placed the baby in his arms. The look on his face she’d seen before—it was the same one he wore while dancing with her in the laundry room of a little summer camp in Canon, Georgia. 

Clyde loved his girls more than any man ever could. 

“You look so much like yur mama, and if that ain’t a blessing from the Lord, I don’t know what is,” Clyde cooed down to his daughter as she drank from a bottle. He smiled and spoke again without looking up, “I know ya are there. No need to lurk.”

Rey should have known that she couldn’t sneak up on her husband and pushed off the doorframe and padded across the nursery. “How is she?”

“Hungry little thing is all. Ya didn’t have to get up.” 

Georgia Mae finished her bottle, and Clyde shifted the babe to his shoulder and held out his other arm to welcome Rey into his embrace. His wife settled onto his lap and rested her head on his other shoulder. He rocked them slowly. Even without a hand, he held everything dear to him in his arms. 

Clyde never imagined that his truck breaking down in northeast Georgia would turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. 

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to the readers of this story for supporting me and being so loving! Each kudo and comment means so much and it makes my heart so happy!!! 
> 
> I hope you all have loved young Rey and Clyde falling in love. ❤️

**Author's Note:**

> I have drawn a lot of the imagery from my own time at a summer camp in central Florida. I never had a relationship with a counselor, but man did we get into some trouble!
> 
> Leave me some love in the comments below and also give me some stories from your time at camp! Maybe some of them will make it into WHYIOH!


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